Copycat
by IntoShadow
Summary: A mysterious boy with a powerful semblance and a dark past intertwined with a certain member of team RWBY is admitted to Beacon. Seemingly flippant about his past, he quickly finds traction in the social group of team RWBY. But behind his mask of apathy lays a hurt soul. Lot of exposition early on, but picks up a bit late 3rd chapter. New chapters as fast as I can write them.
1. Introductions

**I am releasing the first two chapters at once, simply because I felt there was a lot of setup in Chapter 1, and I didn't want you guys to become bored. "Why didn't you just combine the chapters?" You ask? Because I'm lazy and didn't want to combine them. Plus it would be pretty long.** But** with that out of the way, happy reading!**

Trees hurt. You can fall from them, they can fall on you, their branches can scratch you, it's surprising how many ways they can damage your body. And if you're thrown against one by an Ursa, well, I'm sure it's not hard to imagine. Daedalus produced a grim smile, forcing himself to his feet, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. The Ursa snarled at him, slowly closing the gap between them in the forest clearing. Rookie mistake. Daedalus used the opportunity to pull out his two sizable gold axes, and he charged at the Ursa. Surprised at his tenaciousness, the Ursa paused. Second mistake. Daedalus activated a semblance, rendering him completely invisible. A quick peek through the basics of the semblance revealed it could be upheld for a maximum of 41 seconds. More than enough time, he said to himself as he sprinted by the Ursa's left flank, slicing its legs. The Ursa cried out, and wheeled around to face its unseen attacker. Daedalus grabbed its front leg and pulled himself up onto the Ursa's back. He buried an axe in its back, causing it to rear up on its hind legs in pain. Daedalus slid underneath the beast, his other axe transforming into a large barreled six shooter. He lifted it to the Ursa's chin and fired. The large Grimm slumped over, dead. Daedalus flickered back into sight, smiling at his handiwork. Suddenly he gasped, as he felt a searing pain in his abdomen. He looked down to see a Death Stalker's stinger impaled through his stomach. In somewhat of an accidental vanity trap, he hadn't noticed the beast sneak up through the forest while he was fighting the Ursa. He lifted up in the air, as the Death Stalker prepared to deliver the final blow. The stinger began racing toward the ground, and Daedalus accepted death. Suddenly he saw a figure standing at the other end of the clearing. She(he assumed it was a she from the hair swept up in a bun) raised something in her hand, and his descent abruptly came to a halt. He slid off the stinger and fell, and as he hit the cool, leaf-covered ground, he passed out.

Glynda Goodwitch was tired of chaperoning these Search and Destroy missions. It had been fun for a while, but they got boring and repetitive quickly. So when she heard an Ursa cry out in pain, her curiosity and boredom caused her to tell the group to stay where it was while she went to investigate. She reached the clearing just in time to see a boy flicker into view next to a dead Ursa. She was so surprised by this that she didn't notice the Death Stalker until it was too late. It impaled the boy, and without missing a beat, she leapt into action. She reached for her riding crop and stopped the fatal blow from the Grimm by manipulating her energy shield into a wall. The boy fell harmlessly to the ground. Well, as harmlessly as you can fall after being impaled by a Death Stalker. She then proceeded to quickly defeat the beast, showering it in razor sharp dust crystals until it lay still. She rushed to the boy's side, and reached for her scroll to call Professor Ozpin.

"Ozpin. I need an emergency medical evac, a boy in the forest was impaled by a Death Stalker. No he's not one of our students. Coordinates 44° South, 37° East."

She ended the call and took off her cape, wrapping it around the unconscious boy's stomach, and applied pressure, as she waited for help to arrive.

Ruby sat on top of the dorm, stargazing. She had been doing it more and more often over the course of the third semester at Beacon. She was so entranced by the perfect night that she almost failed to notice the drone of the Bullhead's engines. Almost.

She stood up, and poked her head around a spire that was obscuring her view of the plaza. She watched with a mix of curiosity and concern as a hospital bed was wheeled out and was hurried toward the medical wing. She was about to go back to stargazing, deciding to investigate the next day, but as she was leaving she heard the tap of Headmaster Ozpin's cane. Her interest piqued, and she quickly made her way down to ground level via a large tree growing in the back. She then used her semblance to sprint past Ozpin and into the medical wing just as he closed the door. She sped behind a pillar in the back of the room and sat quietly.

She heard Ozpin's voice calmly ask, "So, why does a 15-year old boy suddenly show up in one of the most Grimm-infested areas of Remnant? He's a student at Signal, I assume?"

"He's not. I ran a face scan. Not just on Signal but all Huntsman and Huntress schools in all four kingdoms. No matches," Glynda replied.

Ruby could hear the disbelief in Ozpin's voice. "A boy with no formal training takes down an adult Ursa with ease?"

"I thought it was incredible too. He has potential."

The room was silent for a moment. Ruby couldn't believe what she was hearing. _Kid must be incredibly skilled with weapons, _she thought.

"I'll talk to him after he wakes up," Ozpin said, breaking the silence. Glynda turned toward the door and walked out. Apparently the conversation was over. Ozpin walked toward the door as well but paused as he touched the handle.

"Miss Rose, if you had asked tomorrow I wouldn't have withheld anything. Just don't fiddle with his morphine," he said gently, closing the door.

Ruby slid down to the bottom of the pillar, processing what she had just heard. So Ozpin had known she was there, so did he hold things back to teach her a lesson? Did the boy really take out an Ursa, or was he exaggerating to throw her off? Her thoughts were interrupted, however, by a groan from the hospital bed. Ruby slinked out from behind the pillar, and over to the bed, whose occupant had enough metal things sticking into him to pass for a rebellious fourteen year old. Ruby studied the boy. His most prominent feature was his light green hair, which messily came down over his face, obscuring one of his eyes. He was tall, she could tell he would tower over her if he wasn't lying down. He definitely looked as if something bad had happened. His skin was almost pure white from blood loss. She smiled down at him and put a finger to her lips.

"Sssh. It's ok. You're in a hospital...sort of. And it's late."

"Where are all the doctors then?" He asked. His voice was raspy and pretty deep.

"They're monitoring your vitals from across the floor. You're at Beacon Academy."

His eyes showed a hint of panic at the mention of Beacon, but he quickly recomposed himself.

"And what are you doing here, a random girl at the hospital bed of a boy you don't even know?"

"I was curious. What landed you here?"

"I was impaled by a Death Stalker." Ruby's eyes widened in shock. He smiled weakly. "Yeah. Luckily your assistant principal person was there." he said, scanning his eyes over the lowly lit room. It was all white, with fluorescent lights in the ceiling, allowing the two inside to see the rows of empty beds and the entrance to the nurse's office.

"Yeah, it doesn't look like much, Beacon. But trust me, you haven't seen anything yet. By the way, I never caught you name. I'm Ruby," she offered him a handshake. He gave a weak squeeze and replied, "Daedalus," he said, with a smile.

Suddenly Ruby's pocket started vibrating.

"Ah, that would be my sister wondering where I am. I gotta go." As she toddled toward the door, she "accidentally" bumped his morphine up. She yelled back, "Talk to you tomorrow!" and sprinted out.

Daedalus sat up in his bed, in the dim, empty room.

"So I'm at Beacon," he said to himself, "Might see my sister."

He smiled sadly to himself.

"Huh. Now that I think about it, she probably has no idea who I am." He laid back in his bed, asleep before he hit the pillow.


	2. The Impossible Semblance

**Now that first two chapters are uploaded, gonna settle into a rhythm of a story every 2-4 days. So...enjoy I guess.**

A week later…

Ruby sat in the bullhead, listening to the monthly argument between Weiss and Blake about the White Fang. Professor Port had sent them to the Emerald Forest again, to "test your abilities in the field," as he put it. Their goal was to make it from one end of the forest to the other. She tried to stay focused on the mission but inevitably, her thoughts drifted to Daedalus. After her encounter on the night he was rushed into Beacon, he disappeared from his bed in the medical wing. Nothing had been heard from him since.

Yang stood up. "I know you two are having fun bickering, but it's time to drop," she pointed to team JNPR throwing themselves out of the airship.

As they landed, they immediately made their way toward the northern side of the forest, and had little trouble disposing of the small Grimm dotting the forest. That is until they came to the clearing. The last time they were here, Ruby almost died a la Death Stalker. As soon as they stepped into the clearing, they heard the Nevermore.

"Oh boy," Yang muttered as the massive Grimm came into view over the trees. Team RWBY leapt into action, Yang sprinting forward, Weiss creating an Air Step glyph below her. Yang timed her jump perfectly, the glyph propelling her high into the air, and landing on the Grimm's back. She proceeded to voraciously attack the beast, pummeling it from every angle.

Ruby watched her older sister lay a beating on the Grimm from the ground with interest. Yang had always been a skilled fighter, but she had improved exponentially since they first started attending Beacon. Everything was going better than expected, until the King Taijitu appeared. Now the beast itself wasn't an issue, the team disposed of it with relative ease. What was an issue, however, was that while they were killing the Taijitu, a second Nevermore appeared. It swooped in behind Yang, and impaled her right leg with a talon, before clutching her between its talons and flying east. As Ruby delivered the killing blow to the Taijitu, she heard Yang's cry of pain pierce the quiet clearing. She wheeled around to see her sister being carried off by a Nevermore.

"Weiss!" she yelled, activating her semblance and moving forward at breathtaking speed.

"On it," Weiss replied, creating an Air Jump glyph for her. Ruby jumped, but in her panic and haste, she had jumped too early, and missed the creature. It was all she could do to land safely, and at this point, she knew the Grimm was too far away to attempt that stunt again. She watched helplessly as the creature flew off with her sister.

Suddenly a green flash glinted at the side of her vision. She turned and saw the mysterious figure reach out their hand. A ramp of white glyphs appeared in front of them, identical to the ones Weiss used. Ruby looked over, but saw Weiss wasn't even paying attention to the person, which meant, _They made the glyphs?_ Ruby wondered inside her head, as the person jumped off the last glyph and landed on the back of the Nevermore.

The new presence did not go unnoticed by the large Grimm. It tucked its wings in and spun in the air, attempting to dislodge the new threat. A broadsword whistled as it was buried in the beast's skin, and its wielder held on through the barrel roll with no trouble. As the Grimm righted itself, the person rushed forward, the weapon glowing red with Dust. In one swift motion, the figure brought the sword down and cut clean through the Nevermore's left wing. Before the Grimm could even react, the person rinsed and repeated on the other side. The Grimm cried out and dropped the unconscious Yang. The rest of team RWBY watched in awe as the figure flipped off the dying Grimm, grabbed Yang, and summoned a white glyph to slow their descent and land safely on the other side of the clearing. Suddenly the boy(as they could now make out) was standing in front of them, sprinting at unbelievable speed. The team could now get a good look at the mystery man.

His face was obscured by a mask that Blake thought looked uncannily like her former mentor's, Adam Taurus. The mask was painted green with gold highlights. He wore a green tunic that ended at his wrists and knees, with intricate yellow patterns up the sleeves. He wore a long green cloak that strapped loosely around his neck and fell down to the ground, with a gold Taijitu decal in the center of the back. This very cloak he was detaching, tying it around Yang's leg to stop the bleeding, which had made a small pool around her lower body. He stood up and darted into the forest.

"Hey wait!" Ruby yelled after him. She turned to her two teammates. "Can you handle this?"

"Yeah. Go." Blake replied. Ruby took off after the boy, using her semblance to keep pace. He was extremely agile, weaving through the terrain, and it took all of Ruby's skill to keep up. But while attempting to jump through a narrow gap between branches, his tunic snagged and he tumbled to the ground, his mask coming off and revealing

"Daedalus?" Ruby exclaimed, coming to a halt next to him. "What are you doing here?" Daedalus sat up, and sighed.

"Trying to figure out why there were two Nevermore in such close proximity to each other. I accidentally upset it, and it flew off, and ran into you guys," he shrugged, "I felt responsible."

"Where did you go? A person doesn't heal from that kind of injury overnight, but you were gone in the morning." Ruby asked. Daedalus stared off into space for a few seconds, then he gave a defeated sigh.

"Ruby, can you keep a secret?" Daedalus asked, dodging Ruby's previous question.

"Yeah. But why trust me?"

He looked up at her. "Because if I don't, you will relentlessly pursue me until I tell you. I can tell you're the kind of person who would. Figure I'd save myself the trouble," he stated, standing up and brushing himself off. "From that fight, could you deduce what my semblance was?"

Ruby thought back to the fight, and remembered his blinding speed and glyphs. "Speed and glyphs?"

Daedalus laughed. "You didn't find it strange that my semblance seemed identical to yours and Miss Schnee?"

Ruby was about to reply but paused. "Wait, how do you know Weiss?"

"When you do what I do, her surname slinks around," he said. Not technically a lie, as it was true that the Schnee name was very common in his line of work. The misleading part was that wasn't how he knew Weiss Schnee. "Back to the question Ruby. Did you find it strange?" he reiterated.

"And what exactly do you do?" Ruby asked, still interesting in Daedalus' previous comment.

"I hunt Grimm and collect data on them. For a party that wishes to remain nameless," he lied again. "You still haven't answered my question Ruby."

Ruby began thinking. _Why would he have an identical semblance to that of mine and Weiss?_ Ruby thought. _Unless…_

Her eyes widened as her mind came to a theory so impossible that it couldn't possibly be right. _But hey, worth a shot right?_ she thought.

"You…..have a Mimic semblance?" she questioned, scolding herself internally as it came out for how silly it was. Daedalus smiled.

"Bingo." Ruby's jaw hung open in disbelief.

A Mimic semblance was the stuff of legends in Remnant. It was said that a person with a Mimic semblance could wield the same semblance as people around him, and they would also gain knowledge of the semblance instantaneously, sometimes even having more knowledge than the person who actually had the semblance, depending on how advanced they were in controlling their semblance.

Daedalus turned toward the depths of the forest. He looked ready to leave, but paused.

"Ruby, you are...interesting."

"Thanks, I guess?"

"That's not what I mean. You have kindness, _true_ kindness. That's something I don't see too often." Indecision danced through his expression, before he reached into his tunic and produced a thin slip of plain white paper.

"Call me if you run into any trouble," he said handing her the slip.

"Where are you going?" Ruby asked.

"To talk to your headmaster, as he has been observing this whole conversation," he said, staring directly at a seemingly empty area underneath a tree branch. A small camera drone materialized.

"Very good perceptual skills Daedalus," Ozpin's voice came through the speaker. "I'm at the western edge of the forest."

Daedalus took off in a green blur.

"See you soon," Ozpin said with a sigh. Ruby was about to leave, when Ozpin said to her, "Miss Rose, would you please not tell your team members about this particular experience. A few of them might have had...experiences with him in the past. Until he's ready to reveal himself personally, it wouldn't be a good idea to tell them about him." Ozpin said sternly.

"Yes sir," Ruby replied, and sped off back toward the clearing, still reeling from what she had heard. _What am I going to tell my team?_ she wondered as she zipped through the trees.

END CHAPTER 2

**Next time, Ozpin tries to convince Daedalus to join Beacon, and we learn of Daedalus' affiliation with a certain member of team RWBY**


	3. (Failing at)Escaping the Past

**Yeah, so ya know how I said that I was gonna be putting these out every 2-4 days? Kinda lied a bit, as I just finished up this chapter. I finally thicken the plot so you got that to look forward to. See you guys on the other side.**

Ozpin stood atop a hill overlooking the Emerald Forest, sipping his coffee. Glynda stood next to him, readjusting her glasses nervously.

"Are you sure you can convince him?"

"Well if I can't, we lose possibly our most powerful student ever," Ozpin replied. He glanced back toward the forest. "Ah, here he comes now," he said as a green blur made its way up the hill.

Daedalus came to a halt in front of Professor Ozpin, staring up at him. This gave Ozpin ample time to examine the boy further. He had gold eyes, unusual but not unheard of in Remnant. His lips were very pointed, so his facial expressions were given a slight hint of menace. His green hair was just long enough to reach his eyes, but he kept it combed very well. Other than that, he looked very average. Ozpin towered over him by a good six inches, although Ozpin could tell that wouldn't hold long. The kid was only 15 and still growing, but he was already 6'1".

Finally Daedalus spoke. "Why did you send camera drones into the forest?"

"So that you would come speak to me." Ozpin replied calmly, as always.

"Why?"

"First tell me why you can still use Ruby's semblance. Surely she's out of your range by now," Ozpin said, looking toward the clearing a half mile away.

"It gives me a few more minutes after I move out of range," Daedalus said dismissively. "Now why did you want to talk to me?"

"Because I have a proposal for you," Ozpin said as he began to pace. He took a sip of coffee before continuing. "You have the most powerful semblance anyone's ever seen. A Mimic semblance is the stuff of legend."

"Get to the point." Daedalus cut in. He was not one for long-winded speeches.

"I want you to attend Beacon. Clearly you don't like staying in one place for too long. But I want you to become a Huntsman. You will be protected from your...unsavory past within the walls of Beacon," Ozpin said, stopping in front of Daedalus.

"What makes you think I would attend?" Daedalus responded defiantly.

"Because Glynda saved your life," Ozpin said, pointing with his cane. "Because you won't be able to keep your semblance a secret forever. Because you and I both know the Grimm are gaining power every day, and you may be impaled again and when that happens, there will be no one around to save you."

Daedalus was silent for a moment. Ozpin held his mask of serenity but inside he was very nervous. This would be huge if Beacon could develop his talents for good. After a good minute, Daedalus responded quietly.

"Alright. I'll do it. But not for your 'inspiring' little speech just now. For what happened three years ago."

"Well, I'm very glad I did what I did then. I'll call a Bullhorn to take you back to the Academy," Ozpin said calmly, but inside he was ecstatic. A Mimic semblance! He could kill thousands of Grimm single-handedly, provided he had a suitable set of semblances to work with.

About fifteen minutes later, as they watched the Bullhorn fly away, Glynda broke her silence.

"Impressive. You really held in your excitement," she said, smiling at him.

"Let's hope I'm right about him," Ozpin said grimly, turning his full attention back to the Emerald Forest.

_The next day…_

Yang slowly came to her senses, discerning that she was in the medical wing. She sat up, and then almost leapt out of her bed when a male voice quietly said, "Only a day and a half. Impressive for someone impaled by a Nevermore." After Yang recomposed herself, she replied with menace in her voice.

"And you are?"

"The kid who put you in danger and then saved your life," Daedalus said, snapping shut Yang's Grimm Studies book and placing it on a small desk with his mask. "Don't worry about your schoolwork. I covered for you," he said jumping up out of the chair he had wheeled over to her while she slept, and promptly slipping over his tunic.

"Nice," Yang muttered.

Daedalus ignored the jab and said, "You need to keep your head on a swivel, Miss Xiao Long. You could have easily seen that second Nevermore coming if you had been paying attention. You know how hard it was to clean your blood out of my cloak?"" he asked, walking around the bed so he was next to her.

"Well, excuse me for not assuming there was another super-rare Grimm nearby," she said rolling her eyes. "Wait, how do you know my last name?" she said, suspicion creeping through her voice.

"I know a few things about you Yang. Ozpin told me a lot. Your semblance is incredible." Yang tried to stand, but was abruptly stopped by Daedalus.

"The Nevermore impaled your femur. You won't be back in action for a few weeks," Daedalus said. "Unless, of course, I assist your recovery," he said with a sly smile.

"Assist how?" Yang asked. Daedalus put his hand on Yang's hurt leg and concentrated. His Aura flowed through his hand in the form of gold energy, repairing Yang's bone.

He fell back in the chair, exhausted. His Aura was almost completely spent. Yang jumped out of her hospital bed, rejuvenated.

"Thanks!" she told Daedalus. "By the way, I never caught your name," she said.

"Daedalus," he said weakly, "and you're welcome."

"Why are you helping me?" Yang asked.

"Because I disturbed the second Nevermore while I was looking through the forest for my own reasons." He shrugged. "I felt responsible for what happened to you." Yang nodded and walked out of the hospital wing.

Daedalus sat in the hospital wing long after Yang had left, recharging his Aura. He sighed, knowing he had to face the music with Weiss at some point. He began the walk over to the dorm building.

Weiss walked down the hall toward team RWBY's dorm, talking to Ruby.

"You can handle Carden tomorrow. I know you can," Ruby said smiling as they walked into the room. Weiss' eyes widened in shock.

_That's not possible. How can he be HERE?_ she wondered, panic setting in.

Daedalus sat on the low bookshelf, reading a copy of _Grimm Reaper._ He had switched out of his combat gear and was dressed in a casual grey t-shirt and black jeans. He was flipping through the pages muttering, "Wrong. Wrong. Exaggeration. MASSIVE exaggeration. Wrong."

He paused and looked up. "Oh hi Ruby. Hello Schneeky." He smiled inwardly as Weiss' cheeks turned red from the old nickname. He gestured to the book he was holding. "You know how many incorrect things there are in this book? It's ridiculous."

Weiss finally recomposed herself, and spoke with ice in her tone. "What. Are. You. Doing. Here."

Daedalus gave her a look of mock confusion. "What do you mean? I attend here. I have since," he glanced at his watch, "18 hours ago."

Ruby's eyes flipped back and forth between the two. "Wait, have you two met before?"

Weiss stormed toward him, snatched the book from his hand, and pulled him toward the door. "I'll explain later, Ruby," she snapped. "Right now, Daedalus and I have to have a talk in the library," she glowered at him. He merely cockily smiled back.

Weiss slammed the door of the library. It didn't matter, as there was no one there that late at night. She turned to Daedalus, who was looking at the walls of books. He whistled.

"Impressive. I hope you don't mind if I browse while you rant to me," he said condescendingly.

"You know I left that life years ago. LOOK where we are. I've changed."

Daedalus smiled and shook his head. "You never leave that life, Schneeky. Although you gave it a very good try," Daedalus said, running his hand over the spines of several books. "You know, if I didn't know better, I would say you had help from your father…" he trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence. He turned to face her. "But that's not why I'm here."

A look of confusion crossed Weiss' face. "Then what are you here for?"

He raised his arms and spun around. "To study. To learn. I'm actually here to attend Beacon Academy." Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"You? Actually sitting in a class? I'd like to see that. Although I doubt I will," the edge returning to her voice after a brief absence.

"Wow. You really have changed. You've taken a little ice out of your tone." He turned toward the empty library. "Ruby," he raised his voice, "you should have seen her a few years ago. You think she's icy now," his voice dropped to just above a whisper, "You have no idea what she was like."

Ruby slinked out from behind a bookcase. Weiss' expression turned quickly from shock to anger, as she laid into Ruby, "What are you doing here! Can't you keep your nose out of other people's personal business," she asked, infuriated as she stormed toward the young girl.

Daedalus' arm shot out, stopping Weiss in her tracks. He turned to Ruby.

"This is my fault. She's angry at me, and she's taking it out on you." He gave a kind smile. "Leave. Let her take it out on me. I'm used to it. It shouldn't take long." Ruby could only nod and race out of the library, pages ruffling in her wake.

Daedalus turned to face Weiss, his expression dark. "Listen. We're not gonna be able to ignore each other. I got word from Kobalt in Vaccuo. There's something coming, something big," he said, and Weiss was shocked to hear a hint of fear in the statement, something she had never heard before from him. "Plus my room is right next to yours," he quipped, going back to browsing.

Weiss stormed out of the library. She still didn't believe that Daedalus wasn't here to bring her back into the life she had tried so hard to leave. _But, _she thought, _he did seem noticeably kinder. Maybe he has changed,_ as she turned down the hall that led to her dorm._  
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Ruby was waiting back in the room, along with Blake and Yang. Weiss rolled her eyes as she walked in, "Is this an intervention," she asked, sarcasm practically dripping from the words.

"No," Blake replied, "It's a Q & A."

Weiss sighed. "I assume about Daedalus?"

"Who else," Yang asked, getting up off her bed. "We all decided on one question to ask you about him, as you have clearly had..._past experience_ with him." She put emphasis on those words, staring directly into Weiss' eyes.

Weiss almost decided to lie. Almost. "Fine," she said dejectedly. "Who first?"

"Who is Daedalus? I mean, to you?" Ruby impatiently stated.

Weiss sighed. "A former ally. An old flame that's caught up to me. The gatekeeper to my skeletons in the closet."

"A friend?" Ruby asked.

Weiss laughed grimly. "No. He doesn't have friends. He's a cold, calculating psychopath, who masquerades as a kind, gentle boy. Which of course was perfect for our line of work," Weiss responded. "I thought we said just one question," Weiss squinted at Ruby.

"When did you meet and when did you part ways?" Yang asked, going next.

"I first met him when I was 10. He saved me from a beowulf," she said, smiling to herself at the memory. "I said goodbye when I was accepted to Signal, at 13." Yang nodded.

Weiss could already anticipate Blake's question, and was not looking forward to it.

"And what exactly did you two do together?" Blake asked, studying Gambol Shroud.

_Crap,_ Weiss thought. She knew it was coming, but that didn't lessen the importance and potential consequences of her answer. She took a deep breathe, and began.

"It's...complicated."

"That's not an answer, Weiss," Blake cut in.

"I wasn't finished!" Weiss shot back. She composed herself and began again. "We met when I was 10, and he was 7, like I said. I was angry with my father and had dipped my toes into the world of crime. The reason I was in that fight with a beowulf in the first place was because I was attempting to carry out a hit on a higher-up fighter in the White Fang. Of course I failed, as I was young and inept. But he saved me. Turned out he had been assigned to the same hit, but blew his cover to save me." She gave a grim smile. "Last time he'd ever do that. After that debacle, we dove head first into the criminal underground. We quickly rose through the ranks of the assassins and were so good, we were dubbed 'White Death' by the other members of the Black Hand." Weiss saw the look of confusion on her teammates faces. "Oh, right. The Black Hand is the name of a guild of assassins in the Vale underground. They are considered the most effective freelance assassins in the Four Kingdoms."

Weiss sighed. "Our partnership began to unravel when we failed our first mission. I was 13, he was 10. We were assigned to take out a rising fighter in the White Fang." Weiss walked over to her bed, and reached under it, pulling out a small ornate wooden box.

"The thing about the Black Hand is that whenever you were given a job, it was given to you on a slip of paper underneath your bed. This box contains every hit I ever attempted," Weiss whispered. She opened the box, and reached to the back. Ruby counted at least 30 slips in the box before Weiss closed it, and slid it back underneath the bed.

Weiss continued, "We failed because I made a rookie mistake, and got stuck in a very precarious and life-threatening position. It was that day I learned that Daedalus had changed. That he valued completion of the mission over my life. He left me to complete the mission, but failed because the target wasn't there, as we had been set up. We barely escaped with our lives. Several arguments over the next few weeks later, and our friendship was ended. I applied for Signal, and used my father to help me get out of the Black Hand without fear of retribution."

There was silence for a long time. Finally Blake spoke, "You know what I've decided?" The tension was incredible.

"I don't care. You said you don't associate with them anymore?" Weiss, catching on to the irony, quickly morphed back into her old self.

"Oh shut up." But Blake wasn't finished. She stood up and walked toward the door, continuing the satire.

"All I want to know is that when something this big comes up," she swung around in the doorway and gave a half-smile, "You'll come to your teammates." With that she darted out of the room.

"I agree," Yang said, holding back a giggle, but with sincerity clear in her voice. Weiss looked up at her two remaining teammates in the room.

"Can you guys give me a minute? I need to be alone for a bit."

Ruby grabbed her sister, "Of course Weiss. Just call us when you're ready," she said pulling Yang out of the room, and closing the door quietly behind her.

Weiss sat in the room for a while, she didn't know exactly how long. Finally she sat down on the ground and pulled out the box again. She rifled through all the lives she had ended until she came to her final mission. All the slips just had a name, and after the mission, a large _Success_ or _Failure_ was stamped on the slip. Weiss stared at the name on the paper for a long, long time. A single tear rolled down the right side of her face as she thought about how close she had been to ending the life of her now teammate.

She placed the slip back into the box, and slid the box back under her bed. She stood up, with the name on the slip reverberating through her mind. The name on the slip being Blake Belladonna.

END CHAPTER 3

**So that happened. Next time, Weiss battles Cardin, and Daedalus battles Pyrrha, and subsequently the entirety of team RWBY. _THIS_ one should be out in a few days time. If I don't ignore my homework and procrastinate by writing, that is.**


	4. Into the Arena

Weiss sized up Cardin. The boy was a mountain of muscle and arrogance. She walked slowly to her right, her heels clicking on the tiled floor of the arena. She had been preparing for this battle for the past two weeks, but then, so had Cardin.

It was Cardin who made the first move, his impatience getting the better of him. He rushed toward Weiss and slammed his mace into the floor, creating a rippling shock wave that moved toward Weiss with surprising speed. She rolled sideways to avoid it, and thrusted toward Cardin with Myrtenaster, closing the distance between them in an instant. Cardin, expecting this, had turned and blocked the thrust with his mace. Not losing any momentum, Weiss flipped over the boy, setting three Air Jump glyphs above both of Cardin's shoulders and his back. She turned on a dime, setting another glyph under her feet, and jumping toward the glyph over Cardin's left shoulder. She bounced between the three glyphs, getting several good hits on the boy, but unfortunately landed in front of him. Cardin recovered quickly and swung his mace with ill intent, slamming Weiss in the stomach and throwing her violently against the wall of the arena.

Weiss stumbled to her feet, and barely managed to dodge Cardin's follow-up attack, rolling to the right as he buried his mace where her chest had been a moment before. Still groggy, she got a few feeble hits on him before retreating to the other side of the arena. She set Myrtenaster's dust setting to red, watching the weapon glow. Cardin, abandoning caution, tried to deliver a finishing blow Weiss, but his mace was too slow. Weiss raised Myrtenaster and blocked the attack without effort, and while Cardin was off balance, switched the rapier to its violet setting and slashed Cardin's chest, throwing him onto his backside. Wasting no time, she created a white glyph and shot toward Cardin, her thrust this time finding its mark. She created a yellow glyph below both of them and moved in a blur, slashing Cardin dozens of times within the span of a few seconds. Cardin, now completely disorientated, swung his mace randomly, which Weiss easily dodged, and delivered a kick directly to the center of his chest, knocking him down again. She put Myrtenaster under his chin, and then heard the voice of Glynda Goodwitch call out to her.

"And another win for Miss Schnee," she said, strolling into the arena, tablet in hand. "Pyrrha Nikos, you're up next," she said, as Pyrrha's name and face appeared on the screen above the arena. With a few swipes of Glynda's hand, the formerly completely black opponent's face began cycling through all of the faces of first year Beacon students, but came to rest on one that caused all members of team RWBY to shoot up in their seats.

"And your opponent will be our new student, Daedalus. You both have five minutes to prepare."

Weiss, now back in her seat next to Ruby, muttered, "That's not good. Pyrrha's weapon is powerful." Ruby looked at Weiss, confused.

"That's not good for Daedalus?" Ruby asked. Weiss shook her head.

"Daedalus has a thing that he does, and it always annoyed me when we worked together," she turned to face Ruby. "You see, Daeds didn't exactly have a signature weapon. Instead he had something of a unique weapon. He calls it Cube. Basically, it's a small cube he keeps in his tunic. That cube is programmable, expandable matter. He has a chip implanted in his brain, so when he thinks of a weapon, within five seconds, that cube becomes that weapon, down the the tiniest detail. Now normally, he rotated between axes and a broadsword, but that's when he fights Grimm. When he fights a human, he uses the exact same weapon they do, sort of to challenge himself to be able to use every weapon known to man."

Ruby turned her eyes back to the empty arena floor, a mix of curiosity and worry filling her as she waited for the combatants to finish preparing.

Pyrrha walked out of the prep room after about two minutes. Daedalus took his time, and as the seconds crawled by, the tension and worry for Pyrrha grew within team RWBY. At the 4:30 mark, Daedalus entered the arena. Ruby hadn't really appreciated how interesting the boy looked with his full combat gear on, but the green color scheme fit him nicely. He stared at Pyrrha, and pulled out Cube. Just as Weiss had said, Cube rippled and transformed, growing into Pyrrha's spear and shield, but changed their color to green and yellow. They eyed each other, possibly the two most powerful first-years in Beacon staring each other down. Daedalus attacked first, blinking forward using Ruby's semblance to appear directly in front of Pyrrha, slashing with the weapon in sword form, which Pyrrha parried and blocked with ease. She countered with a barrage of swipes, which Daedalus blocked with the shield, before he fired the spear forward, forcing Pyrrha to dive out of the way, the spear impaling harmlessly into the wall. Daedalus shot forward and grabbed it, transforming it into a rifle and shooting with deadly accuracy at the red-haired girl. Pyrrha blocked with her shield and engaged in what became a deadly dance, the two fighters attacking and counter-attacking, moving around the edges of the arena. Ruby could tell Pyrrha was subtly using her semblance to alter Daedalus' strikes, but as she watched further, she noticed Daedalus was as well.

Within the whirlwind that was their entrancing battle, Pyrrha was struggling. The boy was incredibly gifted with a sword, and while she might have a slight advantage in that department, she could feel herself growing tired. She flipped backward and took a quick glance at the battle clock. They had been fighting for almost four minutes. Daedalus paused, about thirty feet from Pyrrha. He closed his eyes. A look of confusion crossed Pyrrha's face, but Weiss knew exactly what was happening. Daedalus was assessing the semblances of everyone in the room, which was about 50 people Weiss estimated, eyeing the crowd. He wanted to end this fight now.

Daedalus used Weiss' semblance to create a black glyph under Pyrrha's feet, holding her in place. He shot forward using Ruby's semblance and slashed at Pyrrha. When she attempted to counter, he used Blake's semblance, combined with some blue dust to create an ice version of himself, darting out of the way, leaving Pyrrha's weapon harmlessly stuck in ice. He created a circle of Air Jump glyphs around Pyrrha, and leapt toward them. He bounced between them like a pinball, pummeling the helpless Pyrrha. His weapon transformed in his hands, turning into a large warhammer. He slammed his foot into Pyrrha's stomach, causing her to double over, and then swung the hammer upward. With a colossal "SMACK!" Pyrrha soared into the air. But Daedalus wasn't done. He created an Air Jump glyph and leapt like a cat, soaring into the air, bringing the hammer above his head. Time seemed to slow as Daedalus reached the peak of his jump. He had timed it perfectly, as he now was parallel with a very battered Pyrrha Nikos. He twisted his body 360 degrees vertically, creating kinetic energy for the hammer, and slamming it into Pyrrha's chest. The girl previously thought untouchable plummeted like a rock, landing in an heap on the ground. Daedalus landed quietly and gracefully a few feet from her. As darkness closed on the edges of Pyrrha's vision, she comprised one thought. _He could have ended that any time he wanted to._ She closed her eyes and passed out.

The crowd was silent. Everyone was shocked at the dramatic turnaround from what had seemed an even battle to a route. Everyone except Weiss. She was surprised Pyrrha lasted as long as she did.

Ozpin watched with curiosity from his office. He reached for his scroll, and called Glynda. "Put him against team RWBY. Yes, all of them. I want to see his full power." He ended the call and turned his attention back to the screen.

Daedalus leaned on the side wall of the arena and waited for his next opponent, which he knew was coming. What he didn't expect was to go against an entire team.

"Daedalus, you will be fighting again. This time, a bit of a custom match. You will be facing team RWBY. Once again, five minutes," Glynda was curt with her announcement, causing ripples among the crowd. Daedalus overheard their disbelief and grinned. He was glad he was finally getting a real challenge.

Three minutes later, team RWBY walked out of the prep area, coming face to face with the most potent fighter in their class. Daedalus had taken his mask off between the last fight and this one, and now eyed his opponents and their weapons. Weiss saw him make a decision, and once again Cube came out. This time however, it transformed into two weapons.

Daedalus held a green and yellow version of Crescent Rose in his right hand, while his left hand was occupied by a single Ember Celica, once again changed to fit his personal color scheme.

Blake shifted on the balls of her feet nervously. Ruby replaced the ammo packet in Crescent Rose even though the one she had had in there was full. This fear did not go unnoticed by Daedalus, and smiled devilishly. He spun his scythe in his hand and planted it in the ground, firing several shots at the team.

The tension broke and the team launched into action. Yang sprinted toward Daedalus, and Weiss summoned a yellow glyph below Daedalus and Yang. Yang threw punch after punch, but Daedalus dodged them all by weaving and bobbing his body and head. As soon as Yang paused to recompose herself, he countered with slashed from his scythe and a punch from his gauntlet, coupled with the activation of the shotgun functionality of the weapon, sent Yang flying backward.

"Bumblebee!" Ruby shouted. Blake turned around and fired Gambol Shroud toward the rapidly moving Yang. She grabbed hold and used the momentum to swing herself around in an arc back toward Daedalus. Daedalus leapt backward to avoid the attack, but threw his scythe forward, and put out his hand. Utilizing Pyrrha's semblance, as it hadn't worn off from his previous fight, he caused the scythe to autonomously attack with devastating precision, causing Yang to lose her grip on Blake's weapon and slam into the wall of the arena. All of this was was to plan for team RWBY, as they needed Yang with her semblance firing on all cylinders if they had any chance of defeating Daedalus. Yang slowly rose to her feet, eyes red, and activated her semblance. The team charged forward as one unit, and Daedalus prepared for battle. Weiss reached him first with her lightning fast thrust. He sidestepped and hooked his scythe under Myrtenaster, pulling up sharply causing Weiss to be lifted into the air. He couldn't pursue the attack however, because he was too busy fighting off Ruby and Blake tag teaming him. Blake side flipped over him, providing ample space for Ruby to charge in for an attack, which Daedalus parried, but he was caught in the back by a purple wave emitted from Gambol Shroud. Off-balance, there was nothing he could do as Yang gave a massive uppercut directly to his ribcage, causing him to fly a good 35 feet in the air. He composed himself impossibly fast and fired an explosive bolt from his Ember Celica that caused Yang and Blake to vault out of the way. He created an Air Jump glyph for himself and shot toward the ground, slamming it on impact with the single shotgun gauntlet, causing a shockwave to blow all of team RWBY off their feet. _I need to defeat one of them and fast, _he thought to himself. _I won't be able to survive the onslaught of four fighters for long._ He made his decision, and sprinted toward Weiss, grabbing her arm while she was attempting to get up. He twisted around and threw Weiss like a hammer throw competitor, firing her toward the wall. He used Ruby's semblance to speed past Weiss' rapidly moving body and appear between her and the wall of the arena. He activated a yellow glyph below his feet and proceeded to batter Weiss with a barrage of strikes from his scythe, finishing her by activating Yang's semblance and dealing back the damage he had just sustained from Yang's brutal punch. Weiss flew out of the arena, destroying a door into the spectating area with a loud crash.

One down. This had all happened over the span of less than five seconds, so the remaining members of team RWBY had barely any time to react as he shot after Blake. Ruby moved between them, Crescent Rose arcing downward to strike Daedalus. He parried the strike and delivered several countering slashes in return. He continued his barrage, pushing Ruby back with blow after devastating blow. He was ready to finish her, when Yang came out of nowhere and laid into him, using her semblance to absolutely destroy his torso and throwing him against the back wall. Blake leapt forward to deliver the finishing blow, but once again, he impossibly recovered to slide out of the way and deliver a counter.

Too late, Yang realized she had just given him the upper hand by pummeling him, and by now, he was supercharged with her semblance. His eyes glowed red as he smiled at the realization on her face. He sprinted forward, creating several Air Jump glyphs in seemingly random places around Yang. He jumped and ricocheted from glyph to glyph, disorienting Yang, finally landing behind her and delivering all the damage she had dealt to him in one destructive strike. Yang was knocked unconscious immediately, and she was blown through the wall of the arena.

Cinder Fall was extremely bored. She had listened (or pretended to) to this idiot Port drone on for a good half hour now about his experiences fighting Grimm. She needed to attend Beacon to accomplish her goals, but she was really reconsidering if her goals were worth sitting in this class. Suddenly the wall exploded, showering Port with wood fragments. Lying on the ground at the front of the class was the culprit of the explosion.

"Apologies for the interruption class, there must be a very exuberant battle taking place in the arena!" Port recovered from his initial shock. Cinder wasn't listening though, as she knew the Arena was a good sixty to seventy feet from where the unconscious girl lay. _Whoever hit her must be incredibly powerful,_ she thought. She looked at Mercury and Emerald and nodded slightly to them. All three stood up and left while the class was occupied with the new student on the floor. They slipped out of the classroom unnoticed and hurried to the Arena. As they sat down, Cinder glanced at the participants of the fight. Her eyes inadvertently widened as she saw a face she thought she would never see again in her life.

Two down. Daedalus shot forward, determined to end the fight there. He switched his scythe to his left hand and hooked it under Blake's feet, simultaneously slowing him and knocking her to the ground. He flipped backward from the whiplash high into the air, and found himself directly above Blake. He changed his strategy and rotated his body so his back was toward the faunas. He turned to deliver the final blow, but was hit out of the air by Ruby, who tumbled to the ground in a heap with the boy. She darted back to her teammate on the other side of the arena, Daedalus in pursuit. Blake stuck the flat of her blade out in an attempt to cause Daedalus to run into it, but he slid under. Opting for a smaller weapon in close quarters, he transformed his scythe into a small katana. He slashed Ruby's leg and jumped up with a jab to Blake's stomach, which he followed with a kick to her chest, sending her sprawling backward. He twisted around just in time to block a strike from Ruby and anticipating a quick strike from Blake, rolled out of the way. Daedalus smiled as Ruby was hit by a purple beam emitted from her teammate's weapon. While the girl was still off-balance, he kicked her leg out from underneath her, and brought his knee to her chin, knocking her out cold. He turned to Blake, and began a barrage of strikes, alternating between the katana and the Embe Celica. Blake's blocks became increasingly more desperate under the relentless attack. Finally she provided an opening for Daedalus, and he struck her with the shotgun gauntlet with such force that she spun around. He finished the fight with a blast from his Ember Celica to slam Blake against the wall. She dropped to her knees, trying to control the pain pulsating from what she felt like was everywhere in her body.

"And that's the match

Glynda quickly repaired the damages to the arena with a flick of her crop. Daedalus darted off and gathered the unconscious bodies of team RWBY and bringing them down to the medical wing. Since he used Ruby's semblance, this took less than thirty seconds. He then returned to the arena, and stood in front of Glynda.

"Am I dismissed? Or will you throw more people at me?" He asked, smugness evident.

Glynda stared down at the boy, who stood six inches shorter than her. She adjusted her glasses and spoke very deliberately.

"That was far from a perfect battle Daedalus. You are dis-" Daedalus was off like a shot. "-missed." Glynda sighed.

Ozpin leaned back in his chair, thinking.

"Incredible," he spoke aloud. "His abilities are farther along than even I anticipated." He pressed a button on his desk and three faces obscured by shadow appeared in front of him.

"He's perfect for the mission. I think we can begin as soon as next semester."

"Very good Ozpin. We'll keep you updated." One mysterious character replied. The call closed and Ozpin put his hands behind his head and leaned back again. _This is either going to go really, really, well, or it's going to go really, really, poorly,_ he thought to himself.

**Next time, Daedalus talks with his sister, a person team RWBY has surprisingly met previously. Got this chapter out pretty quickly, first real fight scenes I've written, hope they were good. I might get one more chapter out tonight, so hopefully that's the case.**


	5. Toeing the Line

**Bit of a shorter chapter here, as I pushed to get it out before I went to bed. Still like how I ended it, though.**

Ruby and Daedalus sparred on the roof of the dorm building, blades silenced by rubber guards on their weapons. It had been a few days since the boy had routed team RWBY. After the event, Daedalus offered to help the team train, as he felt that they could be extremely powerful with the right guidance.

Ruby was knocked to the ground again. She stood up and stomped her foot, frustrated. "You're just too fast!"

"Yeah I know," Daedalus smiled. "When I come in for a counter on your left," he gestured with his weapons, "And I'm using two weapons, you can't overcommit to one side. Keep the scythe in front of you and just spin it to block incoming attacks."

He transformed the two katanas he was using back into Cube. "That's where we'll end it for tonight. You're improving Ruby, and you are very, very good. Don't give up."

As he walked atop the roof, he failed to notice the lithe figure watching him from across the plaza. Cinder Fall had watched with interest, trying to discern his motives for being at Beacon, because she sincerely doubted he was actually here to learn. _The people here have nothing to teach him_, she thought as she slunk back to her dorm, after Daedalus had slipped through a window leading to his dorm.

Daedalus flopped down on his bed, tired from being out so late every night training with the members of team RWBY. He closed his eyes to the blissful release of sleep.

Daedalus awoke to the smell of pancakes. He slowly opened his eyes to find one Nora Valkyrie staring back at him, inches from his face.

"Jesus!" Daedalus fell out of his bed and onto the floor. Nora threw her head back and cackled. She turned to the kitchen area and yelled, "That's twenty you owe me now, Yang!"

Yang grumbled, pouring more pancake batter into the pan. Daedalus looked at the two girls in his dorm and said, "What are you two doing here?"

"Late dorm-warming party...thing," Nora replied with a crooked smile. "Plus your dorm is awesome," She said, looking around.

It was an impressive room. Floor to ceiling bookshelves, packed with books, a fireplace on the side surrounded by several velvet chairs, with an ornate rug to really pull the section of the room together. Daedalus clearly hadn't gone for overall blending as there was a hard line between the sitting room and the kitchen. The kitchen was all modern with quartz counters and high tech cooking gadgets, half of which Daedalus was pretty sure Yang didn't know the function of, but was using anyway.

"Well then where's the rest of your teams, if this is a dorm-warming party?" Daedalus asked, walking awkwardly around his bed attempting to wake his foot up. He gave up and slumped into a sitting chair.

"Everybody else has classes. We're the only ones who are able to eat this late," Nora replied.

"Pancakes up!" Yang said cheerfully, putting plates on the laps of Daedalus and Nora. She plopped down in the third chair in the room. Nora began wolfing down hers, while Daedalus and Yang ate slowly, discussing the fight that had taken place between them.

"Yeah, I still have bruising in my stomach from where you slammed me," Yang said, gingerly touching her abdomen.

"Sorry about that," Daedalus said.

"It's fine. I expected no less from a former assassin."

Daedalus' jaw dropped, and a pancake bit fell back onto his plate. "How do you…" His eyes lit up in realization. "Ah. Weiss told you didn't she?" He sighed. "She never could keep her mouth shut. Almost got us killed on multiple occasions."

Yang stopped eating and put her utensils down. "What's it like?"

"What's what like?" Daedalus asked, mouth full of pancake.

"Being an assassin."

Daedalus paused in his eating and put his utensils down as well. "It's...exhilarating. Well, if you're a psychopath like me. I need some way to vent my anger," he said.

"How can you just brush off ending human life?" Yang asked, concern creeping into her voice.

Daedalus gestured at her. "Ya see, that is exactly what I would expect a non-psychopath to say," he replied and went back to eating pancakes.

Nora, who had just finished the last of her six pancakes, finally spoke."So Daedalus, where did you live before coming here?"

"I moved around. I was in an assassin group. I could never stay in one place at one time."

"No, before that." Nora responded.

Daedalus paused for a moment, then replied, "I used to live in Atlas, when I was really young. But I don't remember much."

Yang noticed his expression was considerably darker after his response to the question, but kept it to herself. The rest of the meal was very quiet, with not a lot of talk. Finally Yang and Nora said goodbye and left his room.

Daedalus sat in his chair for a while, thinking about his past, and everything he had done to hide it, even from his closest allies in the Black Hand. He thought about how he was going to choose between his old life and this one. He thought about the fact that one of his sisters was just down the hall. He sighed. There was a person he could call to help him with the decision he faced, but he was weighing the pros and cons of it. On the one hand, she was engrossed in the criminal underground, while he was semi-retired, so she would still have contact with a few people Daedalus knew long ago. But on the other hand, she was _engrossed in the criminal underground_. He made his decision and reached for his scroll, dialing a number he memorized long ago. "Hey, it's me Daeds. Listen, I need to talk to you. Meet me in the plaza in Vale tonight at nine. Oh, you know which plaza." He ended the call.

Now he just had to wait.

At 7:30 he called a Bullhead to take him to downtown Vale. He strolled through the mostly empty streets, actually wandering into a chocolate shop, and buying forty lien worth of various treats. He sat in a very familiar plaza to him, as this is where he played when he was young, waiting for his mother to finish her work.

He was in the process of devouring the head of a chocolate bunny when he saw her. It would have been hard to miss her, as there were few people out this late, and she was carrying her stupid umbrella, as always. She had actually begun using that as a weapon just to spite him. She spotted him and meandered over.

"Want a fudge bar?"

"Depends. Did you get them from _the_ shop?" She responded.

"Of course I did," Daedalus said, annoyance momentarily in his voice, as he handed her the fudge bar. "So how's Torchwick been treating you, sis?"

"Pretty good," Neo responded, biting into the bar. "Pretty good."

**Next time, Cinder's plan is set in motion and I give my take on Cinder's motives for her actions**


	6. The Choice

**Yeah, so I was going to include the whole Cinder plan thing, but I wanted to get this chapter out so I could focus on both that and the fights next time. Anyway, exposition here, unfortunately. Needed to set up for the next chapter. But we do get the reveal on Daedalus' other sibling so you got that. Happy reading!**

Neo crossed her legs and glanced over at her brother. "So, why am I here? What can I do to help the great Mimic?" She asked with sarcasm.

Daedalus put down the candy in his hands and sighed. "I'm going to have to make a decision soon, and I don't know what's going to be the right choice."

"This has something to do with the fact that you're now trying to toe the line between Huntsman and assassin, I assume?" Neo asked.

"Yeah. I heard rumors of Cinder's plan a few weeks ago, mainly from Kobalt, but yesterday I saw her at Beacon, confirming my fears. Since you walk the tightrope of good and 'evil' so well, I thought either you could help me balance, or push me one way, because I can't continue like this."

Neo sat thinking for a moment. "Pick...pick the one that makes you the happiest Daeds. If you liked your old life more, pick that one. If you like your new life more, stick with it." She stood up and finished the short conversation by saying, "But you can't toe the line for much longer. Everything will be set in motion soon, and you will have to choose. I don't care which, I'm your sister. But people will die, based on your choice. You just have to decide which people." And with that she shattered into fragments, her semblance teleporting her out of sight.

Daedalus sighed. His conversations with Neo were always short, and he hadn't gained as much as he had hoped from this meeting with his eldest sibling, but he did gain some information, so it wasn't a complete waste. But he still had a decision to make, and he was torn. As he walked back toward the pickup to Beacon, he failed to notice the pair of amber eyes piercing the darkness from an alleyway not far from the plaza. Blake slinked out of the darkness to confront him.

_Earlier that evening..._

Glynda Goodwitch watched the bullhead leaving with a critical eye. She reached for her scroll and dialed the number of the school's bullhead manager, Xavier Walker.

"Xavier, who called for that bullhead?" She asked.

"Looks like it was...Daedalus. Just Daedalus. Kid doesn't have a last name apparently." Glynda ended the call and immediately strode out of her office, headed for the dorm wing.

Blake peeked out from behind her book as the door opened. She was alone in the room as her teammates had a late class together, which she had decided not to enroll in. _Battlefield Awareness 101 _wasn't exactly a class she needed to brush up on. She sat up straight when she saw the woman who had entered the room.

"And what do I owe the pleasure, Professor Goodwitch?" She asked, worry evident in her voice. Glynda surveyed the room, tut-tutting at the haphazard placement of the beds.

"You girls really need to be more responsible with your interior design. Regardless," she gestured at Blake with her riding crop, "I need you for a bit of a special mission. Your friend Daedalus just went unscheduled into town. I need you to follow him and find out what he's doing."

"Couldn't you just ask him?" Blake asked, worrying about the possible implications of being discovered by the powerful huntsman-in-training.

"He's been...somewhat secretive about his past. I'm hoping you can shed some light on that area." She frowned, staring down at the girl. "Why? Is there a problem?"

"Not at all, Professor," Blake replied, false calm in her voice.

_Why did I agree to this? _She scolded herself as she walked out of the bullhead and was met with a very empty-looking downtown Vale. Immediately she spotted Daedalus, her keen eyesight picking out the green-haired boy sitting on the side of a fountain a few hundred yards from her position. She enveloped herself in the shadows the street lamps failed to illuminate on the relatively empty street. She knew the back alleys of Vale like the back of her hand, as she had practically lived there when she was in the White Fang. She quickly navigated them to a small alley about thirty feet from him, and peeked around the corner.

She watched, first with curiosity, and then with shock, as the unforgettable multi-colored girl Neo appeared and sat down next to Daedalus. She perked up her ears and listened.

As the conversation wore on, Blake found she had more questions than answers. _Tends to be a problem when you're trying to eavesdrop on two people who have known each other their whole lives, _she thought to herself. As the conversation ended, Blake decided to confront Daedalus about the event, and stepped out of the alleyway.

Daedalus turned around to leave the plaza, only to see Blake Belladonna leaning against a storefront about thirty feet away. _Crap,_ he thought as he knew she was a faunas, and almost certainly overheard the entire conversation. He walked briskly over to her and mimicked her pose, leaning against the wall.

"I assume you saw the whole thing?"

"Yep. Heard it too." Blake replied, with more than a little malice in her voice. "What did Neo mean, 'toeing both sides?'"

Daedalus sighed. _Couldn't keep it hidden forever,_ he thought. _If anything, Blake is the best one to spill to of the four of them._ "I'll tell you _if_ you promise not to tell your friends."

"Even Yang?"

"_Especially_ Yang. Neo almost killed her when they were on the train. Imagine how Yang would react if she found out that I'm Neo's sister."

Blake silently noted that he knew about the fight on the train, then replied, "Alright."

Daedalus clasped his hands together. "Great. I assume you want to hear the whole story. So let's start at the beginning." Daedalus began to pace in front of Blake, as he began his story.

"Neapolitan is her full name, not just Neo. She's my oldest sister, and she was the one who introduced me to the Black Hand. She was one of my main mentors in becoming an assassin, and she is very, very good. She's more psychotic than me, and has no problem with killing thousands of people, evident in her work with releasing Grimm into Vale last semester." He paused and thought about how to phrase the next portion of the story so Blake didn't attempt to gut him right then and there.

"What she meant, by toeing both sides, is that I'm something of a bridge between 'good' and 'evil'," he said, using air quotes to emphasize he didn't think there was such a thing as good and evil. "I'm not completely done with the Black Hand. I do a mission every once in a while for some of my old mentors and companions in the business. But I'm also here, working to become a Huntsman, because of an old debt I have to Ozpin."

Blake's ears perked up at that statement, and cut in to ask, "You owe a debt to Ozpin?"

"Let's just say his cane is multi-functional. Anyway, now that some the more extreme and sadistic members of the Black Hand have begun their own plans, eventually I'm going to have to make a choice on which side to play, and I'm very conflicted. On the one hand, there's you guys. Intelligent, strong-willed, kind, and brave. But then there's people like Neo. Cunning, strategic. Ruthless. I have great respect and a lot more relatablility to people like her, and I owe debts to more than a few." Daedalus sat down on a bench, deflated. "I did a mission, a few months back. Didn't know all the details of it, but it was one more debt paid, and it seemed pretty easy. Find the blueprints of Beacon Academy, and give them to a certain insane pyromaniac. And right now we need to move, as Neo has just informed me that her plan is taking place tonight."

Blake was silent, processing what she had just heard. "Wait, what do you mean, we need to move?"

As she said it, she heard a faint explosion. She whipped her head around to see smoke rising from the plaza at Beacon, and fiery light creating flickering shadows on the buildings. Daedalus jumped up and sprinted toward the school, Blake right behind him.

They paused at the river. "How are we going to get over there?" Blake asked.

"Well, there is one way," Daedalus said, "But it's really going to hurt. Haven't done it in a while, let's see how it goes."

"Wait how are you goin-" Blake was cut off by a hammer to her chest, while at the same time, Daedalus released some of his Aura, the golden energy flowing into Blake's abdomen a split-second after he hit her. This resulted in Blake rocketing across the river, but not injured a bit. She twisted around and looked back at Daedalus, wondering how he was to get across.

Daedalus sat down on the bank of the river. He had no intention of going across, as he knew his sister would be there, and so would Cinder and Emerald and Mercury and all these people who he knew duking it out with Beacon students, and he couldn't choose between them. Neo had failed to mention the third option. He turned to walk away, with the intention of never returning. But as he turned, he heard a faint scream. His eyes shot open, and he sprinted back toward the river, and just as he reached the bank, he reached out with his semblance. He found the one he was looking for and created an Air Jump under his feet, and shot upward toward the academy.

Because he had heard the scream of Nora. And if there was one thing that Daedalus Valkyrie would leave his old life behind for, it would be his sisters.

**Okay, ****_now_**** next time we get Cinder's plan and motives revealed, with some fighting to boot. **


	7. The Battle for Beacon, Part 1

**Longer chapter for you. This chapter did take two days, because I wanted to get the details just right, and I accidentally wrote in a massive plot hole I had to spend time filling. This chapter may or may not include the most convenient late-night study session ever, but whatever. This chapter begins a two part fight between Cinder and Friends and Ruby and Friends. Happy reading! **

Glynda sat at the desk in her classroom, grading the tests of the first-year students taking _Aura Management 101_, sighing in disapproval at the answer choices of the students in team CRDL. "Note to self: Tell Mr. Winchester that answering C for every question isn't a good test strategy," she grumbled under her breath. She quickly looked at the clock. _1:30, I'm staying up way too late grading these,_ she thought. _Only a few left, though._

She was so preoccupied by the tests that she didn't even notice she had an observer. She glanced up and inadvertently gasped, recognizing the woman sitting in the back row of the room.

Cinder Fall smiled coldly and the shock in her old professor's eyes. She stood and lazily ran her hand along the backs of the seats in front of her as she walked toward the aisle. "You know, expelling a ruthless psychopath from your school probably wasn't the best idea."

Glynda, who had recomposed herself by then, replied, "Maybe you shouldn't have sabotaged another team's mission then, Miss Fall. I didn't have a choice."

"You always have a choice, _Professor_." She drawled the last word out with sarcasm.

"Your tampering resulted in the death of one of our most promising students!" Glynda shot back, slowly reaching for her riding crop, which was propped against her desk about two feet away.

"Unlucky for her," Cinder shrugged. "Summer was always trying to one-up me. When you try that with a psychopath...bad things tend to happen." She used a portion of her aura to cause the patterns on her dress to glow, emphasizing her point. Cinder shook her head. "Oh Glynda, you have no idea how long I have waited for this moment. When I can finally destroy you, and the school you've worked so hard to raise up. And this is only the beginning" She pulled her weapon, Charcoal from thin air as she stalked toward the front of the classroom. She paused about ten feet from the Professor, the soon-to-be combatants eyeing each other. As the seconds passed, the tension built between them. Glynda didn't have a very good handle on just how far Cinder had progressed, as the last time she fought her was almost a year ago.

The tension broke like a dam as Cinder shot a fireball at Glynda. The latter raised her crop, creating a purple energy shield. The fireball harmlessly dissipated, and Glynda countered by creating tennis-ball sized, razor sharp crystals above Cinder, and dropping them on her. Cinder effortlessly dodged the attack by jumping backward, nocking three arrows from out of nowhere and firing them at her opponent. Glynda sidestepped the arrows, but didn't know they exploded on contact. The glass wall behind her shattered, leaving a gaping opening to the plaza. The blast knocked Glynda to the ground, and Cinder took the opportunity, closing the gap between the two and blasting a fireball at the blonde woman as she attempted to recover. As Glynda stood, she was hit square in the chest, knocking her backward through the hole and into the plaza.

_Meanwhile in the dorms…_

Mercury rolled another gas canister into yet another room of students. _How many kids go to this school?_ he wondered, as he heard the telltale hiss of the gas releasing. He moved onto the next room, looking over at his partner Emerald, copying his actions on the other side of the hall. As they reached the end of the hall, Mercury unhooked the pin from the last canister he had brought. "Last one," he whispered to Emerald. "Then the fun can really begin." Mercury silently opened the final door, moving almost mechanically as he had done this every other dorm in the school. He rolled the canister in and closed the door, then he and his partner raced back down the hallway and out of sight.

Yang couldn't sleep. Blake had disappeared, and Yang feared the worst. _What if she was captured by Torchwick? What if she went back to the White Fang? What if she's dead?_ She paced back and forth feverishly, frustrated her mind was coming up with the most ridiculous theories about Blake's absence, and even more ridiculous justifications. She plopped onto her teammate's vacant bed, deflated. She glanced across the room at her two other teammates, sleeping blissfully unaware of what Yang was experiencing. They had crashed immediately after their last class of the day after a hard week of training, not even noticing the absence of their teammate. Yang hadn't trained nearly as hard so she stayed up slightly later, but as the hours wore on she began to realize the absence of one Blake Belladonna, which prolonged her deprivation of sleep. As she sat in the darkness, she heard the door creak open, followed by it being quickly shut. Her heart leapt in her chest as she jumped up from the bed to greet(and scold) her teammate.

Except Blake Belladonna wasn't in the room. Yang looked down at the floor, and spotted a small, cylindrical silver canister. She took a moment to process what it was, then leapt into action. She scooped up the canister, and in one fluid motion, turned and hurtled it through the window. She had thrown it so hard that spiderweb cracks moved through the glass, but didn't break it. In fact, the only spot where any glass was missing was a small hole that was coincidentally the exact size and shape of the canister. Yang had no time to admire her handiwork, however, as she was already shaking her teammates awake.

"Whaa...Yang?" Ruby mumbled, wiping drool from the corner of her mouth.

"Someone just rolled a gas canister in here, and it definitely didn't contain anything pleasant," Yang said darkly. This got the two's attention and they quickly switched into their combat outfits and grabbed their weapons. Yang and Ruby waited impatiently by the door as Weiss changed. After what seemed like an eternity to the two impatient girls, Weiss came out of the bathroom holding several damp washcloths.

A look of confusion crossed Ruby's face as she asked, "What are those for?"

"These," Weiss replied, giving one each to the two sisters and putting at least a half dozen inside a pocket on her combat dress, keeping one for herself, "are so we don't breathe in whatever gas was in that canister elsewhere." She rolled her eyes at her teammates. "You two are so impatient you didn't think that they just _might_ have done this in the other dorms…" she trailed off, eyes widening in realization. "Team JNPR."

The three bolted out of the room and burst into the adjacent dorm, expecting to find their friends in serious trouble. Instead, "There's no one here," Yang said, hints of both fear and relief in her voice, as she glanced down at the canister on the ground, still spewing gas.

Ruby began pacing the room, when suddenly her eyes lit up. "I remember now! Jaune told me they were having a group study session in the library! They probably all fell asleep in there," she exclaimed with relief.

Breathing through a damp cloth while sprinting should have quickly winded the girls, but they were in extremely good shape from training, and they ran all the way to the library without pausing once. Once inside, they located their friends, all asleep on their textbooks, with the only light source in the library being a single lamp they had put in the middle of the table. They quickly shook them awake and informed them of the current situation.

"We need to head back to the room to get our weapons," Pyrrha said, as Weiss handed them washcloths to cover their faces.

"We'll wait here for you guys," Ruby responded. The team ran off back toward their dorm. "Weiss, go with them and check a few rooms to see if everyone was left a present, or if it was just us," Ruby said. Weiss nodded and ran off after team JNPR.

This left Ruby and Yang alone in the library, awaiting the return of their comrades. Ruby finally noticed the absence of a certain faunas and asked, "Hey, where's Blake?"

"I don't know," Yang replied, biting her lip in worry. "She wasn't there when we got back from class. Her absence is actually the reason I was up so late so I was able to dispose of that canister."

They sat for a minute more in silence, their curiosity and worry growing. It didn't help when Weiss came back.

"I checked five rooms. They were all sleeping but I couldn't wake them up. They're like, comatose," she stated.

"Are you sure they're comatose?"

"Believe me, Velvet's gonna have slap marks on her face for days," Weiss said. "There must be a really powerful depressant in those canisters."

Their conversation was interrupted as they heard an explosion and glass shatter. They members of team RWBY eyed each other, then ran toward the sound, hoping to find the instigator of all this.

_Or instigators,_ Ruby thought as she came to a halt just inside a door leading out to the plaza. She silently opened the door and allowed her teammates to slip through. They discarded their rags and watched in shock as Professor Goodwitch was thrown violently out of the window to her classroom and fell six feet onto the stone of the plaza.

Cinder dropped down gracefully to the cold stone, her bow transforming back into a sword as she meandered toward Glynda, who was attempting to recover from the fireball. Cinder raised the sword above her head, and swung it downward in a fatal arc. But instead of finding soft flesh, the weapon found only steel.

Ruby had zipped in between the two and blocked the strike, using the shaft of Crescent Rose to brace against the strike from Cinder. Cinder's expression turned from shock to mild annoyance, then back to shock as she dove out of the way of a shot from Ember Celica. By this point, Glynda had composed herself and hailed another rain of Dust crystals onto Cinder, which she destroyed by sending a blast of fire upward, incinerating the crystals. She eyed her four enemies, and shifted her right arm so a tiny black box with an even smaller red button fell into her palm from her sleeve. In one swift motion, she clicked it and threw it to the side, moving so fast her opponents couldn't even tell what she had done.

Mercury watched the fight progress with mild interest from the roof of the dorm building. He turned to Emerald.

"You think she's ever going to actually signal for us?" He asked, only half-joking.

"In this case, I think her intellect is going to outweigh her pride," Emerald replied. She wasn't in the mood for jokes, not with so much on the line tonight. For tonight was critical in Cinder's plan.

Suddenly the small devices strapped to their wrists began to vibrate on their wrists.

"Speak of the devil," Mercury muttered, reaching for his scroll. He called the number already dialed into the communicator and spoke, "You're clear. Go," and ended the call.

The two then descended into the fray.

Pyrrha sprinted back into the library only to find that it no longer contained the members of team RWBY. She turned to her teammates and was about to tell them that team RWBY had left, but was cut off by the recognizable sound of Ember Celica's blast. Without a word, team JNPR sprinted toward the plaza.

Pyrrha arrived just in time to see Cinder staring down her four opponents. Even though she was outnumbered 4 to 1, she didn't seem remotely worried. _The only reason that would be is if she knew she had some kind of advantage,_ Pyrrha thought, her training kicking in as she scanned the plaza for any kind of threat. She spotted two shadowy figures running silently toward Yang, who had her back turned and was the farthest back of the group currently focused on Cinder. Pyrrha yelled to Yang, "Yang, behind you!" And threw her spear toward the two, causing them to pause for a moment to dodge it.

Yang turned just in time to block two shots from Emerald's weapons and a following kick from Mercury. Pyrrha used her semblance to pull her weapon back to her, transforming into a sword on the return trip.

With all the commotion of the two new fighters entering the fray, Cinder took the opportunity to prepare her semblance. She summoned two sizeable balls of solid fire, both about the size of her head, and threw them in quick succession at Glynda, who easily dodged them. The attack smashed into the wall behind her, setting a garden ablaze. Ruby and Weiss rushed forward in tandem, attacking Cinder from two sides at once, but Cinder brushed their attacks off with ease, knocking both of the students back.

Suddenly a colossal whack echoed through the Beacon grounds, followed by a rapidly moving person coming into view above the helipad. Blake flipped and, as her duty as a cat faunas, landed gracefully on four limbs. She quickly surveyed the scene and dove into the battle, sprinting toward Mercury.

Yang couldn't believe what she had just seen. Blake had just rocketed out of the sky and landed directly in the battle. There were so many questions Yang wanted to ask, but a sickle flying toward her face told her those would have to wait. She ducked underneath Emerald's attack and rolled toward her, delivering a punch to her midsection, causing her to fly backward.

Glynda quickly tore her attention away from the flying faunas and back to Cinder Fall. She flicked her crop, causing a rainstorm to form above the plaza, soaking everyone to the bone in seconds. She stalked forward until she was mere feet from the Fall.

Cinder smirked at her. "You know, you may have the advantage for now, but my cavalry is on the way."

Glynda said nothing but let Weiss' blade, coming out of nowhere, do the talking for her. Weiss got in several strikes on the budding arsonist before retreating along with her professor. The battle proceeded to split into two sections. Glynda, Weiss, Ruby, and now Ren leapt in to fight Cinder. While on the other side of the plaza, Nora, Pyrrha, Jaune, Yang, and now Blake took on Emerald and Mercury.

With their superior numbers, the latter group was wearing down Mercury and Emerald. The duo's attacks and blocks were becoming slower, and they were beginning to become tired. But Nora's mind exaggerated this weakness and she went in to try and deal a crushing blow to Mercury, only to be caught in the shoulder by a shot from Emerald. The green-haired girl followed the attack up by sprinting forward and slicing Nora's shoulder, causing the girl to scream out in pain. Blake had reached the two and fought back Emerald, but the damage was done. Blake carried Nora out of harm's way and, with slight hesitation, pulled off her bow to tie around Nora's shoulder, stanching the bleed.

Suddenly the sounds of battle were drowned out by a much louder sound. Ruby turned toward downtown Vale to see at least half a dozen bullheads moving directly toward the school.

"Who's that?" Ruby asked.

"That," Glynda breathed, "Would be the cavalry," as the ships turned to reveal a White Fang emblem painted on the side.

**So yeah! Really happy with how this one turned out. Next time, the fight concludes. That's all I'm saying. But expect a little more plot development and stuff.**


	8. The Battle for Beacon, Part 2

**Coming at you with another chapter tonight. The conclusion of the Battle for Beacon, and a few surprising fights break out, and a hostage is taken.**

Ruby felt defeated. She watched with dismay as the seven bullheads rapidly closed in on Beacon, all most likely packed to the brim with White Fang troops. Cinder had planned this too well. She had hundreds on her side of the battle. Ruby had nine. _And one of them is pretty seriously injured,_ she thought, looking over at Nora. Blake's bow had done a little, but there was only so much liquid the fabric could hold, and blood was already starting to ooze out of the wound. She was so distracted by the forlorn situation she didn't notice the fireball soaring toward her head. Glynda Goodwitch created an energy shield to protect Ruby, but she too felt hopelessly outnumbered.

Cinder launched herself forward, redirecting the girl's attention to the present as they attacked and counter-attacked in an elegant dance of power. In fact, they were so preoccupied with Cinder that they didn't notice the familiar green figure standing on the top of one of the ships.

Roman Torchwick gave a half-smile as he walked back down to the hold where several dozen White Fang troops were currently dropping in on Beacon Academy. He had been freed from the grasp of James Ironwood just an hour previously, under the cover of night. At this point his absence no doubt had been noted by the guards. They were running out of time to complete their objective here. He snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of the bullhead taking off again. Cinder would not be happy if he missed this. He sprinted to the closing back door and dove out, but because he had been so late in his departure, he was currently set to fall directly into Ozpin's office. He closed his eyes and shielded his face from the glass shards that would undoubtedly buffet his body in mere moments.

Daedalus looked at the White Fang troops falling out of the back of the bullhead he was situated on and quickly followed suite. He leaped off the aircraft, using Weiss' semblance much like he did in the arena to send him slamming into the ground, blowing everyone around him off their feet. He used Ruby's semblance to zip over to Ruby and yelled to her above the drone of the leaving bullheads, "I'll take care of the White Fang. You deal with Cinder and her friends." With that, he sprinted away, transforming Cube into two large axes with massive blades and slamming his shoulder into a White Fang soldier and slashing at one directly beside the first. Ruby stole glances at him from time to time while fighting Cinder, in awe of his fighting style. He flipped and jumped so gracefully, each jump having a specific purpose, whether that was to move him away from an incoming attack or to create an attack of his own, not a muscle was wasted as his blades arced, cutting down soldier after soldier of the White Fang. Ruby silently scolded herself for being distracted, and charged at Cinder, running circles around her and slicing at her. But Cinder was just too solid in combat. No matter what Ruby did, she couldn't get a hit in, and as the fight wore on, she got increasingly more frustrated, attempting more and more risky attacks in hopes that one would find the mark.

Roman opened his eyes. He slowly stood up, testing to see if he was injured. He found no noticeable injuries, and, with a hop in his step from his good fortune, he walked toward the door.

"It really is frustrating, not being much of a fighter."

Roman paused at the voice, registering Ozpin's ever-present serenity. He turned, raising his arms, "It's really nice, watching a plan come together. Brings a tear to my eye," he brushed away a non-existent tear with sarcasm.

"Although, you appeared to overlook one large problem. As soon as I saw my assistant fly through that window, I called my good friend James Ironwood. I found he had had a prison escape, and I informed him of the emergency at my school," Ozpin turned from the fight raging in the plaza to face Torchwick. "There are currently 2,000 Atlesian Knight-200's inbound for my school. They're going to arrive in," Ozpin glanced at his watch, "10 minutes." He grinned at the shock on the orange-haired criminal. "And one more thing," he said, reaching for his cane. "I may not be much of a fighter, but I was trained as a Huntsman, and I can most definitely fight one on one," he snarled, the calm gone from his voice.

"Really, old man? What do you think you can do…" Roman trailed off as Ozpin's cane transformed into a long scimitar and casually tapped the point on the ground. Roman sighed, pulling out his Melodic Cudgel. He fired several shots at Ozpin, who blocked the attacks and closed the gap between the two. The two normally reluctant fighters attacked each other with a ferocity that rivaled the battle below.

Daedalus had just ripped his axe from the chest of the dead White Fang soldier when he heard the second scream of the night pierce his ears. He whipped around to see Emerald above Yang, bringing her sickle down for a fatal blow. He used Ruby's semblance to move in between the blade and Yang's neck, clashing his axe with Emerald's weapon. He locked eyes with her, and grinned. "Hello Emerald. Long time no see." He pushed out of the clash and attacked the girl with a flurry of strikes, eliciting increasingly desperate blocks from Emerald. He knocked her to the ground and prepared a death blow of his own, only to be interrupted by a certain red blade aimed for his abdomen.

It was all Daedalus could do to dive out of the way of the strike, and quickly returned to his feet to face his attacker. "Wow, Adam, you're here too? It's like a class reunion," Daedalus mocked, seemingly facetious about the situation.

Adam Taurus glared at Daedalus through his mask. He gripped Wilt and charged forward, attacking Daedalus with a ferocity that took him off-guard. Adam hooked Wilt through the opening in the center of the head of Daedalus' axe, whipping his weapons away from him. All of a sudden, he felt pain arc up his back. He turned to face his attacker, and came face-to-face with someone he thought he would never see again.

Blake stared at her former mentor with an expression Adam couldn't quite place. Something between sadness, disappointment, and fear. This expression quickly disappeared and was replaced instead by a dark anger as she charged at him, unleashing attacks in perfect unison with her semblance, battering the man she once called a friend.

Adam recovered quickly from his initial shock and slid under a strike from Blake, slamming Wilt's hilt into Blake's stomach. She doubled over, and Adam used the opportunity to release the hits Wilt had absorbed back into his former student, blasting her across the plaza. She struggled to her feet, dazed.

Meanwhile Daedalus had his own problem. That problem came in the white, brown, and pink form of Neapolitan Valkyrie. Daedalus gathered his weapons and charged at his sister. He attacked with dozens of slashes which Neo weaved between, reminiscent of her fight with Yang. But unlike the fight with Yang, whenever she tried to counter, Daedalus was just as apt at dodging her attacks as she was his. After about thirty seconds of this back and forth, Neo became bored and used her semblance to teleport away to god-knows-where.

Daedalus was about to turn to fight another enemy when he heard the roar of different engines in the distance. He was flooded with relief as he recognized the Atlas insignia on the side, knowing help had finally arrived.

Cinder knew time was up. She cursed under her breath as she flung another attack at the white-haired girl who had attempted to come in for another attack. She sent a fireball very similar to a flare into the air, telling the bullhead pilots to wheel around and come to pick them up. _Now, _she thought, _I just have to trust what Neo said about her semblance's power._

Neo saw the flare from the roof of the medical building, and quickly leapt into action, jumping from the roof and steeling herself for the pain that was most likely to follow the transportation of over 150 people. But before that, she had task she had to complete. She snuck up behind Ruby, and with a swift crack with her umbrella to the back of her head, she dropped like a stone. The bullheads were now in prime position, and Neo closed her eyes, reaching out with her semblance to all the White Fang and partners in crime. She then teleported them into the ships. To the remaining Beacon students on the ground, it looked as if they had simultaneously shattered into glass shards. Neo immediately passed out, her last view of the outside world was of the face of a certain unconscious Beacon student.

Cinder smiled with actual pride at the job Neo had done. Her semblance had advanced in leaps and bounds since Cinder had taken her in all those years ago. Her smile turned cold as she turned to her new hostage, Ruby Rose. "Don't worry, we'll take very good care of you," she whispered with malice, before turning and walking to the co-pilot's seat and leading her fleet away from Beacon.

**Next time, Nora and Daedalus discuss Daedalus' leaving of the family, and Blake discovers her name in Weiss' box.**


	9. Team DKNS

**Happy weekend everyone! Got another chapter for you guys. Didn't write in the whole Blake-Weiss thing, that's for next chapter. Sorry :/. But you do get the creation of a Daedalus-led team with Cinder's sister on it, so you got that going for you, which is nice.**

Nora quietly closed Daedalus' dorm door as she walked inside. Daedalus was scanning his many books, his back to her.

"You wanted to see me?" Nora inquired, slumping into a sitting chair. Even though several days had passed, the battle had taken a large emotional toll on the girl, and it showed. Her ever-present smile was...well not present. She dragged her feet to and from team RWBY's dorm, being the only one who could restrain Yang when she went into her fits of rage after the kidnapping of her sister.

"Yes, I did," Daedalus responded, pulling a thick, dusty old book off his shelf and plopping down in an adjacent chair, blowing dust off the cover. Nora could now see the cover clearly. _Greek Mythology_, it read. Nora had never studied that particular subject, so the book seemed pretty arbitrary to her. Daedalus sighed stared at the normally chipper girl, eyeing the cast on her shoulder.

"Nora, what do you remember about your early life?"

Caught off guard by the question, Nora cocked an eyebrow before responding, "Well, I grew up in downtown Vale. I had a younger brother who...disappeared when I was very young. I grew up alone, and trained and was accepted to Signal, and subsequently Beacon."

"Your brother. What do you remember about him?" Daedalus pressed.

"Not much. Like I said, he disappeared when I was young," Nora said, suspicion rising in her voice.

"Well, I know a lot about your brother. For instance," Daedalus stood, tossing the book in his hands at Nora, who barely caught it with her uninjured arm. "His name was Alexander. He was tenacious, young, and very impulsive. He had straight black hair, but had it permanently dyed to protect his identity after he ran. He also changed his name, to prevent anyone who he pissed off tracking down his family. And it's a good thing he did, as he pissed off many people. He became an assassin, associating himself closely with some...unsavory people. People like Cinder Fall, Roman Torchwick, and Emerald Sustrai. And his eldest sister, Neo." He paused, turning to face Nora, who had caught on by now and whose jaw was hanging open more than when she had miraculously fit ten pancakes in it at once two weeks previously. "She was perhaps the most unsavory of them all. But then, on a routine mission to the southeast, he was stabbed through the abdomen by a Death Stalker. And he was brought to Beacon Academy, where he was guilted into attending by an old favor to an even older man. But then he met teams RWBY and JNPR. And their tenacity and kindness surprised him. And made him rethink his alliances."

"Alexander…" Nora managed to finally squeak out, her brain still attempting to process what she was hearing.

Daedalus smiled weakly. "Hey sis."

He steeled himself for the verbal barrage he expected to receive. Instead, all he felt was arms embracing him in a crushing hug and tears forming a damp spot on the shoulder of his t-shirt.

When Nora finally let him breathe again, pulling back, her tear-stained cheeks glistening in the late-afternoon light, she asked a simple but profound and expected question.

"Why?"

Daedalus gave a sad smile. "Because of Neo. I was seven, and was beginning to realize I wasn't like other people. When I heard about one of my friends being hit by a car, I didn't feel anything. No sadness, nothing. Neapolitan used this to convince me to run off with her and join the Black Hand. Do you know why I chose the name Daedalus?"

"No…" Nora replied, her smile returning after a four-day absence.

Daedalus pointed at the Greek Mythology book she had thrown to the side when she had hugged him. "That might give you some answers. In the meantime, don't tell anyone we had this conversation. And my name is Daedalus, got it? I don't go by Alexander anymore."

"Yeah, got it," Nora said, walking toward the door. Just before she closed it, she quietly said, "Thank you, Daedalus. Thank you for coming back." With that, she closed the door.

Daedalus stared out his window overlooking the still battle-ravaged plaza for a while, finally turning and walking out of his dorm, navigating the corridors until he came to Professor Ozpin's office. He knocked and then entered, not waiting for the Professor to invite him in.

Ozpin was staring out his window when he heard the knock at his door, and the immediate squeaks of opening and closing his door made. _I should really get that fixed,_ he thought, turning around to face Daedalus. "How can I help you, Mister Valkyrie?" He said, taking a sip of coffee as he asked.

"I want to get Ruby back."

"As do I, but that is easier said than done. Do you have a plan?" Ozpin questioned, walking over to the boy.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Daedalus spat, his impatience getting the better of him. "I have several people back in the Black Hand that owe me more than a few favors. I can create a very powerful team to hunt for her," he continued.

"And you want what? My blessing?"

"No, I want your approval, so you don't wonder why my sister and I are disappearing in the middle of the night."

Ozpin raised his eyebrow at the last statement. "You finally told her? And moreover, you want to be on a team with her?"

"I want the team to be off the books. I can collect the two other members I need by tomorrow, if I start now," Daedalus answered.

Ozpin gestured to the door. "Then what are you waiting for, boy? Go, and find them." He turned back toward the large window. "I'll be waiting for you here when you're done."  
>Daedalus nodded, even though the Professor couldn't see him, and walked out of the office. He immediately took out his scroll and called for a bullhead. His first stop would be Vaccuo.<p>

Kobalt downed another shot of whisky, some of the liquor falling onto his hand as he drunkenly raised the glass to his lips and downed it. He was not looking forward to what he had to say next. He called the bartender over and slurred, "I'm terrrrrribly sorry, sir, but I didn't bring any quid with me," he patted his pockets, waiting for the harsh reprimand and following cold ground outside the pub. Instead, the bartender merely shrugged.

"That's fine. The man over there," he pointed to a face that made Kobalt light up, "has been paying for all your drinks tonight." But Kobalt hadn't heard the last part. He was too busy stumbling over to his old friend.

"Daedalus!" he bellowed, slapping the boy's back with a strength that almost slammed his head into the table.

"Hey, Kobalt," Daedalus smiled back. He gestured for him to sit down. "Listen, I need your help…"

Serena stood atop the Minx Tower, looking over downtown Atlas. She checked her scroll. _2:30 in the morning,_ she thought to herself. She should have begun sleeping hours ago, but she loved the view from the observation deck of the massive tower, looking down on the city aglow below. _Stupid hair,_ she thought, once again brushing the jet-black strands out of her face. One thing that was annoying up here was the wind. She created a wisp of darkness, allowing it to dance through her fingers. She almost jumped out of her skin when a male voice spoke quietly from a few feet away.

"Atlas is so beautiful this time of year, don't you think?" Daedalus leaned on the guardrail, giving a half smile toward his old companion.

Serena created a ball of darkness in her hand, gritting her teeth and spoke slowly, "Why are _you_ here?"

Daedalus' upheld his bravado, and lazily said, "Don't worry, I'm not calling you back into the Black Hand. I left about a year back as well."

Serena relaxed slightly, the ball of darkness disappearing from the legendary "Witch of the Night"'s hand.

"But I am calling you in. For me. Your sister kidnapped a good friend of mine. I know you dislike her as much as I do, especially since the breach in Vale."

"And why should I? I gave up killing four years ago, and if you can't tell, I'm not exactly eager to get back into it," she retorted.

Daedalus sighed. "Mistral, residential district. July 25th, four years ago."

Serena began to speak, but stopped herself. Finally, with an exasperated sigh, she replied, "Fine. But just this once!"

Daedalus smiled. "I knew you would see it my way. Now let's get to briefing…" Daedalus' words echoed through the cold Atlas air as he explained to Serena his predicament.

Ozpin already knew who it was when he heard his door being opened. _After all, _he thought, _who else would come in at 5:30 AM?_ He turned to see four very different people standing in front of him.

Ignoring Daedalus and Nora, he focused on the two new faces. The first was an absolutely massive boy. He wore grey plate armor that was very reminiscent of medieval knights, completely enclosing his body, apart from the helmet. It was intricately carved to a dragon head's likeness, that opened at the mouth to reveal deep brown skin and piercing blue eyes. Protruding from his back was a massive broadsword that was at least a foot longer than the at least seven foot tall boy.

The other new face was almost the opposite. Ozpin had almost mistook her for Cinder, eyes widening as she walked in, and Daedalus didn't blame him. The resemblance between her and her sister was uncanny. They even wore similar battle gear, but there were a few noticeable differences. Serena's dress was mainly black with deep purple highlights. Her dress differed from that of her sister in the fact it was a custom made dress designed to mimic Victorian era dresses, but with the front removed to allow for much more movement. Ozpin didn't see any noticeable weapons on her person, and wondered what she used for combat.

"Professor, allow me to introduce mister Kobalt Agenor and miss Serena Fall."

Kobalt offered a salute, while Serena curtsied.

Ozpin smiled at the newly formed team. "You will be called team DKNS, or Darkness. To everyone else at this school, you don't exist. Nora," he looked into the energetic girl's eyes, "You will train with team JNPR during the weekdays. On the weekends you will train with this team. You may begin your search in two weeks time, or when I feel you are adequately prepared to go into the field. You are dismissed."

The newly formed team nodded and exited the room, walking toward Daedalus' dorm. Well, it wasn't just Daedalus' not anymore.

As they reached the room, Kobalt looked around, nodding in approval. "This is nice. This will definitely do."

"We're getting beds for you two tomorrow. In the meantime, Serena, you can sleep on my bed. Nora you'll sleep in your bed in team JNPR's room. Kobalt and I will sleep on the floor for tonight." Daedalus said, immediately filling his role as team leader.

"Aww, come on man!" Kobalt complained.

Daedalus raised an eyebrow. "We slept on the floor of a cave for three months in Mistral and you're complaining about one night on a padded, carpeted floor?"

"But why does she get the bed?"

"Because Serena's….volatile," Daedalus responded, choosing his words carefully.

"Darn straight," Serena replied, falling onto the bed. The new team proceeded to discuss a few meaningless topics as the Friday morning wore on. They suddenly realized how late it had gotten and that they were all starving. They headed off to the cafeteria, being careful not to be seen sitting together, as two new kids sitting with Daedalus would raise a lot of curiosity.

Daedalus lay on the top of the dorm building, stargazing. He had begun doing it more and more since he had been at Beacon. As he stared up at the twinkling little miracles of burning gas, he heard footsteps. He tore his eyes away from the sky and glanced over to see a certain depressed blonde walking toward him.

Yang lay down beside Daedalus, deflated. "What's up, Yang?" Daedalus asked. Yang sighed.

"What do you think? My sister's gone, and I have no idea where she is, or what unspeakable things that Cinder girl is going to do to her."

Daedalus patted her on the shoulder, staring back up at the stars. "You know," he said slyly, "I'm not supposed to tell you this, so you gotta keep it a secret. I've constructed a team with Ozpin's approval to search for Ruby. Did you notice the two new students during lunch today?"

Yang frowned. "I noticed one. A 7-foot tall black guy is hard to miss. Didn't see the other one though."

"Officially, we're supposed to begin searching in two weeks, but because of the urgency of the situation, we set out tomorrow for a bit of an information search with some old contacts I have in the Black Hand."

"And you're telling me this...why?"

Daedalus turned again to face Yang. "Because, well, I want team RWBY to come with us. I mean, she's your teammate, it only makes sense to have you guys help look for her."

He smiled as Yang's eyes lit up. He stood up and began to saunter away, calling back, "Be ready to move at 7:30, sharp. Wait in the plaza."

With that, he disappeared back into his dorm leaving Yang alone. But Yang didn't mind, as he had given her hope, the absolute best thing she could have right then. She sighed and began stargazing, a comically large grin on her face.

**Next time, we get the Blake-Weiss debacle, and Daedalus visits some old not-quite friends.**


	10. Leverage

**Yeah, I know, it's been three days. But sweet lord on a sandwich, would you look at that word count. 5000. This is easily the longest chapter I've ever written. Would have put it out sooner, but had to finish a project for school I held off until the last minute because I'm a terrible person. There is a bit of a dark section in this story, because I really wanted to emphasize how psychotic Daedalus is. You have been warned. Also I don't quite get around to the whole aftermath of the Blake discovering the box debacle. You'll have to wait until next time. With all that out of the way, happy reading!**

"You did not!"

"It's true! I knocked a guy out with an undersized salmon."

Nora and Kobalt threw their heads back in laughter. Their personalities were almost identical, and they hit it off almost immediately. _They also both eat pancakes at an inhuman speed,_ Daedalus thought, as Kobalt started on his twelfth.

They were sitting at the glass table in the team's kitchen. Nora had woken up early and had cleaned out Daedalus' fridge, making at least 40 pancakes from what he could count. They only had about fifteen minutes before they had to meet the remainder of team RWBY in the plaza. _There is no way we're getting out there on time,_ Daedalus thought, sighing.

"So where are we gonna go today?" Serena asked quietly. She had been silently picking at the one pancake on her plate, stirring syrup around the edge of her plate in boredom.

"I was thinking we would go see the twins," Daedalus replied. "Seemed like a good place to start."

"You think they're still in Mistral?"

"I don't see why they wouldn't be," Daedalus picked up his plate and put it in the sink. He raised his voice so that the two extroverts in the group would hear him and said, "As much as I know you're enjoying your breakfast, we have to move," he ordered, pointing to the clock.

Kobalt took a look at the clock, and stood up and reached for his armor, but was stopped by Daedalus.

"We're going to be walking through the streets of Mistral, and if things turn sour, I don't want have someone I'm responsible for looking like he's going to war." Daedalus looked toward the two girls. "That goes for you two as well. Dress casual," he smiled as he grabbed a t-shirt and jeans. And then a massive brown trenchcoat.

Nora cupped her hand over her face and giggled at her brother's ridiculous choice of "casual clothing". This did not go unnoticed by Daedalus. "What?" he inquiried.

"Oh nothing. Nothing at all."

Daedalus shrugged and put the massive piece of clothing on. It was too big for him and draped down almost to his knees. He paused at his teammates desperately trying (and failing, for the most part) at holding in gut-busting laughter. He sighed indignantly. "Just go change out of your pajamas you idiots."

Team DKNS walked into the plaza, where the bullhead Daedalus had called earlier was waiting. Daedalus immediately spotted Yang and her teammates. Blake and Weiss looked as if they had just rolled out of bed, which wasn't far off from the truth, as Yang had woken them up just ten minutes previously and informed them of what their activity that day was going to be. They filed into the bullhead silently, and only when the ship was in the air did Daedalus finally speak.

"So today we start project Thorns, in an effort to find Ruby Rose. Now, a few introductions…" he quickly rattled off the names of the occupants of the aircraft, before continuing. "We are currently headed to Mistral, which should take around ninety minutes. I'll talk more about the specifics of the mission when we land."

Daedalus then sat down and realized he had made a terrible mistake in sitting next to his sister. After about ten minutes of non stop chattering, he sought refuge next to Yang on the other side of the ship.

He plopped down next to her. "So how are you feeling?"

"Nervous. Exited. Scared." Daedalus noticed she was gripping the lip of the metal bench they sat on so hard her knuckles were white. He pointed to her iconic shotgun gauntlets.

"I'm actually gonna need those once we land."

"What? Why?" She immediately asked, suspicion in her voice.

"Gotta look inconspicuous. If we're going to find the people we're looking for, we need to look as normal as possible."

Yang glanced over at Kobalt, the seven foot tall body now occupying the seat where Daedalus had been, talking to Nora. "Kobalt over there isn't exactly the person I would describe as being easy to lose in a crowd."

Daedalus grinned. "Yeah, don't worry about Kobalt. He'll be fine."

Daedalus patted the metal suitcase at his feet. Yang hadn't even noticed it as she had entered the bullhead, and now she was immensely curious as to its contents. "So what's in the box?" Yang asked, reaching down and rapping her knuckles against it.

Daedalus grabbed her wrist and ripped it violently away from the case. Yang looked at him incredulously. "What was that for?"

He gestured to the box. "This is the plan in case things go awry. I would recommend not touching it."

Everyone rode in silence for most of the way. Well, everyone except the obvious Nora and Kobalt. But one other pairing discussed, possibly the most unlikely pair to talk in the whole group.

Blake looked over at the girl next to her. Daedalus had introduced her as Serena, and Blake was intrigued by her appearance. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she looked very familiar.

"Do I know you?" Blake asked. At first, Serena didn't react, assuming the question was directed elsewhere. When she realized that it was her that Blake had questioned, she smiled.

"No. You know my sister though. The one who orchestrated the attack on your school and is responsible for the kidnapping of your sister."

Blake's eyes bulged. "You're her sister?"

"The one and only. Serena Fall," she held out her hand. "Nice to meet you, Blake."

Rumbling shook the hold as the bullhead touched down, and the group stretched and walked out into daylight.

"So where are we going?" Yang asked, a hop in her step as she walked alongside Daedalus down a sidewalk in downtown Mistral.

Daedalus pointed to the tallest building in sight, Yang recognized it as the Dunamis Tower. "I do need your gauntlets, Yang."

Yang reluctantly took off Ember Celica and handed them to him, and he promptly put them into one of the many pocket on the inside of his massive trenchcoat. Yang now realized why he wore the unwieldy piece of clothing. From the outside, it didn't look like he had anything stored in the jacket, even though her gauntlets were pretty sizeable.

Yang brought her attention back to the tower, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized it didn't make any sense. The Dunamis' were a very wealthy family, Edgar Dunamis being the founder of the weapons manufacturing giant. It was where she had gotten Ember Celica custom-produced all those years ago. She grinned inwardly at the memory. _But why are we looking for Ruby here?_ Yang thought as Daedalus pushed the large glass doors open, a blast of warm air hitting Yang. She hadn't realized it with her wandering thoughts, but it had been quite chilly outside.

Daedalus walked toward one of the many elevators dotting the reception, lugging the metal case along with him. As he reached it, he hit the button for up and turned to face the six other people.

"Wait here, I won't be more than two minutes."

_Ding!_ Daedalus turned and strode into the elevator, metal doors closing behind him. As the elevator rose, he reached into his trenchcoat, revealing a tranquilizer gun. He loaded it with three darts he had labeled previously with green paint.

As the doors opened on the top floor, Dunamis' personal secretary saw the weapon in his hand and moved to call security. But Daedalus was too quick. The dart punctured her neck, and she slumped over, asleep. He walked past her and down the hall that led to the CEO's office.

Something of a home chemist, Daedalus had created the concoction in the darts himself, and knew she would be out for a few hours and wake up with a nasty headache, not remembering anything from five minutes before he shot her.

He continued down the hall, and easily disposed of the two guards at the door in the same manner he disposed of the secretary. He paused for a moment to load the gun with a single red dart for what he was to face inside.

He flung open the door into a room which he had little time to admire.

The room was large, with a ceiling that was at least fifteen feet above the ground. On all walls but the way Daedalus entered, there were massive glass walls overlooking downtown Mistral. In the center of the room was a large mahogany desk, and behind said desk was his target, Edgar Dunamis.

With a sly smile Daedalus murmured, "Hello Mr. Dunamis."

Edgar's eyes narrowed as he stood up and spoke in a deep and commanding voice, "Who are you? And how did you get in-" He was cut off by a dart to his neck. He tipped like a cow, his large frame falling with a muffled thud to the soft carpeting.

Daedalus sighed. If he had just stayed in his chair this would have been easier. Now he briskly walked over to the unconscious body, and grabbing him by the armpits, managed to lift the at least three hundred pound man back into his leather chair. He wiped his brow, surprised by the effort it took.

"You know, you should really work out," he said rhetorically. He knew he wasn't going to get a response. He placed the suitcase he had been lugging with him down on the ground and opened it with a four digit combination, revealing an...interesting selection of objects.

He reached for the first, pulling out around five feet of simple rope. He walked over to the unconscious man and wound it around his chest and arms, and around the back of the chair.

"Sorry buddy. Didn't want to do this to you, but I need to talk to your daughters." He shrugged. "This seemed like the easiest way to get their attention."

He walked back around the desk and kneeled down at the case, this time pulling out a much more menacing item.

He gingerly placed the cylindrical bomb on the table. He pulled out a scroll, not his of course, this couldn't be traced back to him, and typed a series of numbers into the timer function. One hour appeared on the bomb, and Daedalus started it. He then pulled out the third item, another scroll, once again only able to be traced to a nomad named John Smith, who didn't actually exist.

He snapped a photo of the situation in front of him and sent it to the number of Crimson Dunamis, along with the message _Tick tock. If you want your father to live, go to the Gambler's Warehouse._ He then pulled the final item, a tripod for the previous item, and attached them.

Satisfied with his work, he left. He knew that Edgar Dunamis was seen as very reclusive, and would not talk to anyone for days at a time. He also abhorred security cameras, as he was incredibly paranoid of them. So there was a very low chance of Daedalus getting caught. He strolled out of the elevator, located his team, and left. As they walked down the street, Serena walked with him.

"Getting some leverage?"

"Yup. Now to the Gambler's Warehouse."

Serena raised an eyebrow. "Really? That's where you set up the meeting?"

"Hey, don't judge." Daedalus turned to his group and began walking backward down the sidewalk. "I suppose I should tell you guys what's going on."

"That would be nice," Weiss grumbled. She had been very quiet since Ruby's kidnapping, brooding on her bed for hours on end.

Daedalus turned back around and slowed down, so he was within earshot of everyone. "Our targets are the twin daughters of Edgar Dunamis, Crimson and Celeste. Cinder associates with them very closely. The only problem is they are very reclusive, much like their father. So our little adventure in the tower was to gain some bargaining chips to drag them out into the open." He lowered his voice, suddenly very wary of passerby. "Right now we're headed to a place called Gambler's Warehouse. It's a warehouse on the docks, and it's a 24/7 fight-to-the-death betting club."

"And what exactly did you _do_ to gain these bargaining chips?" Weiss growled at him.

"I tied him up and planted a bomb on his desk," Daedalus said casually.

Weiss did a double take. "You did what?"

"Not gonna repeat myself Schneeky," he said, rounding a corner. "Ah, we're here. Act casual."

He opened the rusting door to reveal a massive, bustling room. The Gambler's Warehouse bore a striking resemblance to a full fledged casino, with the elegant carpets and polished stairwells, but instead of slot machines and roulette wheels, there was a ring that reminded Yang of the boxing rings she would train in back at the Academy. A dining area was set in the back of the warehouse, and Daedalus quickly spotted the twins, and ushered his team to a dark corner of the warehouse. Hard to find in a large, open area like the Gambler's Warehouse, but Daedalus had been here many times and knew the place like clockwork.

He turned to his team and whispered, "Wait about fifteen seconds after I leave, then spread out and mingle. There's a bar over there," he gestured to an area about fifty feet from the dining tables, "Don't get intoxicated. The Dunamis twins are dangerous and have almost certainly brought a hit squad to attempt to kill me. Be ready for a fight." He reached inside his trenchcoat and brought out Ember Celica, handing them to Yang. "When I require your assistance I will drop my beverage. You won't miss it."

"What if you drop it on accident?" Blake asked. She was worried about the solidity of this plan of Daedalus'. Daedalus simply gave her an indignant look in reply and strode off toward the twins. One by one, the team filtered out into the warehouse.

Yang walked toward the bar, and noticed Serena was already there. Yang plopped down next to her. The bartender walked over. "So what can I get you two?"

"Strawberry Sunrise, no ice," Yang said, sticking with her favorite.

Serena cocked an eyebrow. "Classic Mistral bourbon, over the rocks."

"That's like the most expensive drink they have," Yang warned.

Serena merely smiled. "And do you really think we're going to be paying for these when conflict erupts over in the dining area?" She gestured to Daedalus, who had sat down with the twins and was now locked in conversation.

"Speaking of Daedalus, what's your connection to him? Kobalt seems to be an old friend, but you...you seem reserved. Like you don't really want to be here," Yang asked, shifting her body so she faced the cold, purple eyes of Serena.

Serena sighed. "An old debt from when I was young and inexperienced. He saved my life," she sighed. "I don't like owing people, and he's held onto his for a very long time. This Ruby girl must be pretty important to him if he's calling it in now."

Yang brooded over this as she drank her Strawberry Sunrise, savoring the cool fruity burst it gave her. Her thoughts were interrupted, however, by the clattering of a certain individual's glass to the wooden floor.

Daedalus smirked as he walked over to the table where the twins sat. His smirk was greeted with cold anger from the twins. He pulled up a chair and called a waiter over, ordering a water. He examined the two as he sat in silence, noting the changes that had taken place over the two years he hadn't seen them.

Crimson was the more impulsive of the two, her bright red hair was tied in an intricate ponytail and fell over her right shoulder. She wore an outfit strikingly similar to Ruby's combat dress, only with shades of orange instead of black, and without the corset, it instead being replaced with a single elegant dress. Her semblance was widely known as being just slightly inferior to Cinder's, and she walked with a chip on her shoulder because of it. Her sister wore an identical outfit, except for the color, which was a dark shade of blue coupled with a very eye-catching blue, matching her hair to the letter. Celeste was quiet and reserved, never letting her emotions show. Her semblance was the opposite of her sister's as she controlled ice, and could use it to stunning effect, constructing devilish ice weapons and torture machines, which Daedalus had witnessed more than once. He did _not_ want to be put in one those, and that was a distinct possibility if things went awry.

Crimson leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. "What do you want, _Daedalus_," she almost spit the name out, failing to conceal her anger and, more importantly, fear. Celeste sat in silence. She was the one Daedalus was worried about. Crimson's anger was hot, and it used her. Celeste's anger was cold and she could use it.

Daedalus kept his facade of bravado and replied smugly, "This can go one of two ways, C and C. Either you tell me what I want, or your father dies. Simple as that."

"And what is it that you want?" Crimson shot, her temper rising at his nonchalance.

It was Daedalus' turn to lean forward, and he now sat just inches from two of the most dangerous people in Mistral. "Tell me where Cinder Fall's captive is."

Crimson threw her head back in cold laughter. "You threaten our father and you think you'll get that information. Cinder would kill our entire family if we gave up the information you want. And besides," she stood up out of her chair, subtly nodding upward, "You forgot the third option."

All around the Gambler's Warehouse, lithe black-clad figures dropped from the rafters, brandishing katanas of all Dust types, causing panic to set in with the current occupants of the warehouse. Daedalus counted at least fifty. "We kill you and stop your timer."

Daedalus laughed inside his head. This is exactly what he had expected from Crimson. "Your 'royal guard'. You always did have a vanity problem, Crimson. Bravo. Really great stuff. You know, I would call you a genius," he tipped his water glass so it fell to the ground with a clatter, "But I'm in the room."

Serena leapt into action with breathtaking speed, reaching into nowhere and pulling out a massive scythe. It was nowhere as high tech as Ruby's as it was just a simple purple shaft with a black blade, but as Yang watched with awe, Serena used it with devastating results. Everywhere Serena swung the scythe, darkness leapt like the flames of a fire, and any of the royal guard foolish enough to run into it were immediately paralyzed with fear as the darkness reached into their minds and played with their worst nightmares.

Serena smiled gleefully to herself as she cut through the black figures. It had been so long since she had had the thrill of fighting...well anything now that she thought about it. Only problem was, she was having so much fun that she didn't realize she had hopelessly overextended herself, and was now completely surrounded by royal guardsmen and women. To any normal fighter, this was not a good situation. But Serena Fall was no normal fighter.

She closed her eyes and dropped to a knee. All the darkness in the warehouse seemed to be drawn to her, and the area around her became pitch black. Suddenly there was a colossal boom as darkness moved out in a shockwave, knocking Yang off her feet as she was dueling a particularly skilled guardsman. She bolted to her feet and looked toward the source of the explosion, eyes widening in awe as she saw what had happened.

Serena levitated in the center of a ten foot tall figure made of pure darkness that trailed off of her like wisps of smoke. Her scythe was extended by the darkness into a weapon that could have swept a radius of at least thirty feet. As Yang looked at the figure Serena was now enclosed inside, she noticed it looked disturbingly similar to depictions of the Grim Reaper she had seen as a child. The thoughts were quickly pushed out of her mind as she blocked an attack from her opponent, who had regained his footing and had charged at her.

Kobalt tried to ignore Serena's antics as he flipped another lithe figure over him, the person landing in a heap about ten feet away. Due to the conspicuousness of his weapon, he had been forced to go without it, and he now fought with his bare hands. Of course when you're a seven foot tall, 250 pound man, your hands can really be considered a weapon in their own right.

Daedalus blocked another arrow from Celeste's longbow. The girl had deadly accuracy, and he couldn't disarm her because he had his hands full with Crimson's dual katana. The weapon seemed impractical, looking like Darth Maull's lightsaber from _Star Wars,_ but she was surprisingly skilled with it, and Daedalus was doing everything he could just to use his axes to deflect the weapon.

"Could use a little help over here," he called out, followed almost immediately by a whistling sound and one Weiss Schnee striking Crimson's side before vaulting over to where Daedalus stood. The two tandems faced eather other, pausing to catch their breath. Daedalus grinned at Weiss. "Just like old times, huh?"

Weiss rolled her eyes, changing Myrtenaster to its red setting, their code for how they were to attack. The two charged forward, attacking and switching in perfect unison. Celeste didn't stand a chance. After taking significant damage, she was knocked out by a hit to her head by the blunt end of Daedalus' axes.

Crimson was significantly more difficult to dispose. Even without her sister, she kept the two fighters on their back heels by adapting the philosophy of "The best defense is an unstoppable offense." Her hands moved in a blur, parrying any attempted attack and immediately countering. But there was a reason her two opponents were called "White Death", and Crimson was already beginning to show signs of fatigue. Her attacks were getting ever so slightly slower, and Daedalus and Weiss exploited the advantage to the fullest, becoming more and more aggressive as the fight wore on.

Then came the vital mistake. Crimson parried a slice from Myrtenaster, but she had done it with too much force, and lost her balance for a half a second. Which was all Daedalus needed. He slammed into her with his shoulder, and hooked his weapon into hers and violently ripped it away, leaving her defenseless. Well, as defenseless as a Pyro Semblance could get. And she wasn't going down without a fight.

Crimson leapt backward and swung her arm in an arc in front of her, producing three fireballs travelling to her left, right, and center forcing Daedalus and Weiss to dive out of the way. But the fight had dragged on too long, and Daedalus' semblance had recharged too much. He reached out, selecting Serena's semblance from the sea of battling semblances in the warehouse. Darkness swarmed around him like moths to a flame, and he grew into a massive dark figure as well. But, as Weiss duly noted, instead of a Reaper, his shadow had taken the form of what Weiss could only decipher as a fallen angel. Seemingly decaying wings and a massive longsword instead of his axes.

Daedalus swung his arms, the massive blade catching Crimson in the chest and throwing her against a wall, causing hairline cracks to run along the wall. She fell to the ground in an undignified heap.

Weiss glared at Daedalus. "Why didn't you just do that earlier?"

"You know how my semblance works. Even though I can use other people's semblances, it still uses Aura. I needed to recharge."

Slowly the sounds of battle quieted as the team took out the "royal guards". Daedalus and Weiss stood over Crimson and Celeste as Serena strolled over. "So...what now?"

"Now," Daedalus said, turning toward Kobalt "We go to Plan B. Kobalt can you carry these two?"

"Come on, man, why's it gotta be the black guy?"

"Because you have double the strength of anyone else in this squad. Ethnicity has nothing to do with it," Daedalus said sternly, all business.

Kobalt slung one girl over each shoulder as Blake went to get a van so they weren't glaringly obvious.

"Wait," Serena called out as she walked back toward the bar. She reached past the cowering bartender and snatched a bottle of Dack Janiels from the shelf. She pulled the cork out with her teeth and spit it on the floor. "Okay, ready to go."

Daedalus sighed. "Don't drink too much. I need you sober."

"No you don't. Not if you're doing what I think you're doing," Serena said vaguely, taking a swig from the bottle. An argument was avoided by Blake honking the horn from outside the building. The team walked out, leaving an absolutely destroyed room in their wake.

Serena awoke with a massive headache. She attempted to stand, only to find that she couldn't move her body. She looked down, expecting to see ropes restraining her. Instead she saw nothing. _He used a paralytic,_ she thought, grimacing. She took a look around the room, eyes widening as she realized her situation. She sat in a small wooden chair to the left of her unconscious father's desk, everything untouched from when Daedalus had left earlier that day. She saw Celeste on the other side of the desk, but she was tied up, which Crimson found confusing.

Suddenly, the screen of the scroll on the tripod in front of them flickered to life, revealing a very menacing Daedalus Valkyrie. "So, blackmail didn't work, so you've forced me to go to my...more aggressive approach. Take a look to your right, Crimson." Crimson obeyed and fear shot through her as she noticed the bomb, set for two minutes. And as of just then, counting. She quickly turned back to the screen and almost screamed in fear.

"What do you want?!"

Daedalus smiled coldly. "I've already told you. I want the location of Cinder Fall and her captive."

Crimson tried to weigh the odds of her decisions. On the one hand, if she answered him, she would be hunted by Cinder for the rest of her life if it was ever discovered that she was the one who revealed the information. But on the other hand, if she didn't tell him now, she wouldn't have a rest of her life to live.

"Tick tock, Crimson. Would you like me to just end it now?" Daedalus held up another scroll with a single red button on it. "Call me old-fashioned," he smirked. He was enjoying this.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you. Last I heard, she was in Vaccuo, staying in the basement of the Dust shop downtown, which she has commandeered and turned into a front for a foreward operating base. That's all I know, I swear," she said, tears running down her face.

Daedalus leaned back. The timer ticked past fifteen seconds. "Stop the timer Daedalus."

Daedalus sighed, and swiped left on the screen, revealing a green button. He pressed it, and the timer stopped at nine seconds. The two sisters let out a collective sigh of relief.

Crimson's emotions quickly turned from relief to anger. "You won't get away with this, Daedalus. The security footage will show it was you."

Daedalus sneered at her. "Not to sound cliche, Crimson, but I do believe I already have. Because when they investigate, they'll find no tapes from the day as you will have deleted them. And the elevator cables will have been cut by _your _weapons. It will look like an attempted murder-suicide," he grinned devilishly. "Marionette semblances are the best, ya know?"

Crimson's face turned pale. _So he forced me to go downstairs and delete the tapes, and cut the elevator cables,_ she thought to herself.

Without warning, the timer on the bomb started again. Crimson looked in panic back to the scroll, to see Daedalus' finger on the red button. "We had a deal!" She screamed.

Daedalus shook his head. "Oh Crimson. It was only partially about the information. Mostly, it was about sending a message." With that, Daedalus ended the call, and leaned back in the bullhead. He felt the small shockwave of the explosion as the bullhead left Mistral to a chaotic situation. Suddenly he felt a blade pressed to his throat. He looked up calmly to see the infuriated face of Blake Belladonna.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now. You just killed three people for no reason."

"No reason? If I had let them live, they tell Cinder, and Cinder moves. This way, it at least gives a little uncertainty to their deaths. Gives us a bit more time. And here's a good reason for not killing me," he said as he pushed Gambol Shroud away from his throat, "I'm the only chance you have of finding Ruby."

A tense moment passed as Blake stood in front of him, Gambol Shroud still less than a foot from a death blow. She finally walked back to her seat, shooting a death glare in his direction.

Weiss wasn't surprised, not really. This is how Daedalus operated. Ruthless and efficient, he was so logical that he would do anything for a tactical advantage. She rested her head on Nora's lap, drifting into blissful sleep.

Blake stormed into the dorm, still furious even after the long trip back to Vale. She had stormed straight to the room as soon as they had landed. She yelled and aimed a kick at Weiss' bedpost, but in her rage, missed and in a stroke of misfortune for Weiss, kicked a certain ornate wooden box, jogging Blake's memory.

Now more curious than angry, she pulled the box out with more effort than she anticipated, as the box was quite heavy. She unlatched the locks and opened it. She skimmed through the names, but one caught her eye.

With trembling hands, she pulled out the final mission of Weiss Schnee in the Black Hand.

Weiss froze in the doorway, shock and fear keeping her in place. Blake turned, her sensitive ears picking up Weiss' light footsteps.

"We need to talk."


	11. Pep Talks for Everyone

***Looks at how long it's been since uploading a chapter***

***Falls off chair in disbelief***

**Yeah yeah, I know. It's been a while. Well, I do have my excuses. Blah blah, renovations on my house, blah blah couldn't access my computer, blah blah massive basketball tournament, blah blah sickness. It hasn't been a great week for me. But I have written past this point in the story so expect a much larger chapter in the coming days. This chapter is a very exposition-y one where it is revealed how what happened in the Bullhead affected Yang, and in her distraught state, an unlikely hero gives her the strength she needs to talk to Daedalus. Daedalus in turn, speaks with Weiss and Blake and...dissolves the situation that had been building between them.**

Ruby's arms ached. Well, every part of her ached, but her arms ached the most. This was mostly due to the fact that she was strung out like she was crucified, her arms chained on each side of her. She groaned and dropped her head down, lolling on her chest. She was so tired and in pain that she didn't notice that Cinder was in the cement box that she now called home.

Cinder had a newspaper in her hand, and a coffee in her other. "The Mistral Post reports that Crimson Dunamis has committed a double-murder suicide of her sister and father." She lowered the paper so Ruby could see her face. "It seems that your friends are looking for you. But clearly Crimson didn't say anything."

Cinder paused for a moment, expecting Ruby to ask why. When she remained silent, Cinder grew annoyed. "Don't you want to know how I know that?" She furrowed her brow as she stood and walked to the immobile girl. "Well, since you're so happy this morning, I'll tell you. Daedalus looks for tactical advantage. There would be no reason that he would kill the two unless it was a threat he made and didn't get return on."

Ruby remained silent. Cinder frowned and put her hand under the younger girl's chin, lifting it so Ruby had no choice but to make eye contact. Cinder made a sarcastic pouting face. "Does Ruby want a hug?"

Ruby sucked up what little saliva she had in her mouth and spat onto Cinder's cheek. This was met with a hard punch to Ruby's ribs, causing her to cry out and subsequently go into a coughing fit. Cinder stormed from the room, leaving her alone.

_Please. Weiss, Yang, heck, even Jaune. I don't care but please help me,_ she thought as darkness wavered on the edge of her vision, and then consumed it, as Ruby fell into unconsciousness.

_The previous night…_

Jaune hummed to himself as he skimmed through books in the library, looking for one with information on the greatest warriors of Vale for a project. He had procrastinated, and it was now very late on the night before it was due. He finally found his savior of a book and meandered toward the door. A deflated sigh rang through the almost empty library, causing Jaune to pause. He turned to see a distraught Yang Xiao Long sitting at a table shrouded in shadow near the back of the library. She had removed Ember Celica from her arms and the weapons now rested on the table beside her.

Jaune turned and walked toward the table, his looming due date completely vanished from his mind as he flipped on a light to illuminate the girl's face. "Hey Yang. What's wrong?"

Yang sniffled and replied, "Nothing, Jaune. There's just a lot going on right now, and I feel overwhelmed."

Jaune raised an eyebrow. "Okay, Yang, you need to learn how to lie better. First of all, the Yang I know never cries, she gets angry and kicks butt. And secondly, Yang Xiao Long is never overwhelmed. You're special in that respect," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "So I'll ask again. What's wrong?"

Yang sighed, leaning back in her chair. "It's Daedalus. I just spent the entire day on a mission with him, and he did something that I can't comprehend."

Even Jaune, who was oblivious to most things, knew about Daedalus. He had watched in awe and fear the day Daedalus decimated his teammate and Team RWBY immediately afterward. "You were on a mission with him? What were you guys doing?"

"Looking for Ruby. At least, that's what I _thought_ we were doing. So what happened was we…" she reiterated the events of the day to Jaune, who listened intently, asking questions when he didn't understand something, which, unfortunately for Yang, was often. "So yeah. That's what I did today. To be honest, I'm still kind of numb about the whole experience. He's said numerous times that he was a psychopath. I mean, he was in an assassin group for god's sake," she gave a hint of a smile, which Jaune took as a small victory. "But I just never...I never thought he would do something like that. The enjoyment he got out of toying with Crimson's emotions, knowing all along she was going to die, it was...terrifying. And I don't know if I can ever look at him the same way again." She whispered.

Jaune sat thinking for a while. Finally he said, "All Daedalus has known in his life is ruthless tactics. He knows how to kill without remorse and he does it very, _very_ well."

"So?"

"So show him something different. Show him kindness, show him honesty, show him love. Monkey see, monkey do. It's never too late, Yang," Jaune said, standing up.

"When did you become so philosophical?" Yang asked.

"I'm not. But that would be what I would do, if I were you," Jaune called back as he walked toward the door of the library. Suddenly his ribs cried out in pain as he was enveloped in a crushing bear hug from Yang.

"Thanks, Jaune."

"No….problem. Just...please let…me…..breathe." Yang quickly released him, and he gasped for air. "Now...you should….go talk to him. You….should be…..discussing this with him….not me," he said between deep breaths. He watched as the blonde disappeared from view down out of the library, and smiled to himself. _You did good, Jaune,_ he thought as he strolled out, resuming his humming.

Daedalus sat in his easy chair, reading _Morals in Humans and Faunas,_ a title he had recently picked up about the ethics of Faunas and Humans. He readjusted his reading glasses and flipped the page, brushing his green hair out of his face as he did so. A small fire crackled, providing dancing light on the pages, just enough for him to read. He was so engrossed in the text that Yang was able to slip in unnoticed. She plopped down in the chair across from him, causing him to jump.

"Jesus, Yang. Don't _do_ that."

Yang leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "We need to talk."

Daedalus sighed. "This is about how I handled Crimson, isn't it. Listen. I'm going to reiterate what I said to Blake in the bullhead. If I didn't kill them, they immediately tell Cinder and the whole trip was pointless. This way, it looks like Crimson just couldn't take it anymore. And that's all I have to say about it," he said sternly, easing back into his chair and picking up his book.

"I'm not saying you made the wrong decision. From a purely tactical standpoint, what you did was the most logical. But the _joy_ you got out of ending their lives...that's what I'm here to discuss with you."

Daedalus was engrossed in his book again. "Yeah, yeah. Awesome."

Yang snatched the book out of his hands and tossed it into the fire, eliciting protest from Daedalus, followed by a sight of defeat. Yang glared at him. "Daedalus, this is important. You can't just brush these kind of things off if you expect to hold this group together."

Daedalus leaned forward, and Yang shifted uncomfortably as she felt his piercing gaze. "I was practically raised on death and destruction. My parents died when I was very young. I ran off and joined the Black Hand. I was molded by them into a machine. You know Serena? She says she owes me a debt. All I did was spare her life, after killing her best friend." Daedalus paused to let it sink in.

"You saw her fight. You know what they called her in the Black Hand before she went rogue? They called her 'The Witch of the Night'. And she fears me."

Yang stared off into the distance, thinking. "Before today, I didn't actually think you were a psychopath."

"Well good for you for deluding yourself for that long, but this is the end of that road," Daedalus cut in.

"Not my point," Yang sighed. "My point is….I still don't think that. Even after what you did."

This caused Daedalus to pause. "I murdered three people in cold blood and enjoyed it, and you think I'm _not_ a psychopath."

"If you were, why would you come here? To this school?"

"I owe a debt to Ozpin. This is how I'm paying it off."

"But why stay? During that mission you could have easily just disappeared and gone off on your own, but you didn't. I've known you for a while now, and something I've noticed is you never like to stay in one place for too long." She gave a half-smile. "Can't drown your demons?"

Daedalus smiled back. "They know how to swim."

Yang chuckled and walked to his window that overlooked downtown Vale. "You know, there's a saying. 'Old dogs can't learn new tricks'. But I can't bring myself to believe that. Because," she turned to face him, "You have kindness in you. Emotions. Hope, love, joy, sorrow. This is what separates us from the Grimm. But you, you try to hamper that. You try to destroy emotions to be the perfect killer, and that's where you're wrong. To be a perfect killer you don't have to deny yourself emotions."

Yang began to pace as she continued her speech. "You just have to channel them. All of your anger, your hatred, your fear. Take it out on those you hunt. I know I can't stop you from killing. I can only hope to bring you back to humanity. Because I don't think you toe the line between good and evil. I think you toe the line between human and Grimm."

Daedalus sat silent, but from the expression on his face, Yang knew she had gotten to him. As she walked to the door, she ruffled his hair. "Just a thought," she said, closing the door.

She walked down the hall to her dorm, extremely happy with how she had dealt with that. As she touched the doorknob, she realized she had forgotten Ember Celica in the library. She jogged down the hall toward the library to retrieve her gauntlets, her racing mind making her oblivious to the sounds of battle coming from the interior of the dorm.

Weiss stared at the paper in Blake's hand, a thousand thoughts running through her mind, but one rose above the rest. _I'm so screwed,_ she thought, walking over to her bed, aware of Blake's eyes boring a hole through her skull as she did so. She wheeled around to face her teammate as she sank onto her bed.

"Ahem. Black Hand Kill Order. Blake Belladonna. Failure." Blake looked up from the paper. "And when were you planning on telling me about this?"

"We've already done a Q & A. Let's do a trade instead. Questions, one for one."

"Works for me. So answer the question."  
>Weiss could sense Blake's cold malice, and sighed. "Never. Because I knew if I did, this would happen," she gestured toward Blake. "My turn. What type of things did you do in the White Fang?"<p>

"That….is so much more personal than what I asked."

"Is it? I was ordered to kill you. Now we work together daily."

"That can be remedied," Blake growled. "Anyway, back to your question. I did a lot of sabotage missions, infiltration. As the White Fang grew progressively more….aggressive, I began doing hits."

"So you're hypocritical?"

Blake glared at her darkly. "Why do you think I left?"

"I don't know, that's why I'm asking," Weiss tilted her head to the side and grinned cockily. She was enjoying finally bringing out Blake's anger, for most of the time she internalized it.

"My turn. Why didn't you look surprised when I first saw you at Beacon?"

"You've changed your appearance substantially. The bow was a nice touch, I must say." Weiss' voice dripped with condescension as she stood and walked over to Blake, staring up at the taller girl.

"You are one of the most stuck-up person I know," Blake seethed.

"Darn. Was looking for that number one spot," Weiss smirked back.

Blake yelled in frustration and threw a punch at Weiss, her rage boiling over. Weiss danced out of reach, yelling, "Thought you were quicker than that, Blake!"

Blake reached under her duvet, expecting to find Gambol Shroud. Instead she found nothing but air. "You stole my weapon!" she accused.

Weiss looked confused, but not mockingly. "No, I didn't."

"Then explain why it isn't where it should be!"

"Because I took it," a voice cut through the rage-filled room.

The two girl's heads whipped toward the source of the words, to see Daedalus resting on their windowsill, Myrtenaster resting on his left shoulder, Gambol Shroud in his right hand. He hopped down, tut-tutting at the girls.

"I was hoping for a catfight, but Blake, you took it a bit too far," he chided as he walked over to the two girls, lazily swinging their weapons. "Now, I know you two come from very different, almost opposite backgrounds. But you two need to reconcile. Because if you don't this incredibly clever plan I have to save Ruby Rose isn't going to work."

"And this plan is?" Weiss questioned.

"All in good time, Schneeky. Now, you two need to kiss and make up. Blake, you're frustrated and angry at Weiss. I picked our missions, not her. Be angry at me."

"So instead of me hating another member of my team, you want me to hate the leader?"

"I don't need you to like me. I just need you to work with me. Weiss, on the other hand…" he trailed off, turning his attention to his old comrade. "Well, you're a bit more fragile than you make yourself out to be." He met Weiss' glare with his trademark cocky smile. "Now Weiss. You don't like Blake because she comes from the White Fang. But think about it logically. The attacks on your company started after Blake left the White Fang. Sure, they had begun to turn, but the attacks became more direct on your company only after Blake left. So she's not at fault here."

"Doesn't change the fact she did kill some people."  
>"You're one to talk, Weiss. Now, Blake, out. You need time to brood, seeth, whatever you need to do to get your anger out. Then you two need to settle your differences," he stated, ushering Blake toward the door.<p>

"You know I am a primary resident of this dorm, right?" Blake half smiled.

"Bye-bye!" he smiled as he closed the door.

Daedalus walked over to Weiss' bed and flopped onto it, the smile gone from his face.

"Thanks," Weiss' voice rang through the silence.

"You're welcome."

"You've really changed. I mean, taking the whole 'mission picking' bullet for me."

"Weiss, I didn't do it for you. I did it because I need a functioning team if this mission is going to succeed," Daedalus stated coldly.

Weiss sighed. She expected it, but she was still disappointed that Daedalus only helped her for a tactical advantage. "Can I have Myrtenaster back?"

"Nope. I'm keeping it until you reconcile with Blake. Or tomorrow comes. Whichever happens first. Big day tomorrow, Weiss. Get some rest." With that, Daedalus leapt out of the window he entered through, out into the night.

Weiss didn't need to be told twice. She collapsed onto her bed, asleep almost immediately.

**Next time, Daedalus launches his attack on Cinder's stronghold, and Cinder retaliates by unleashing her secret weapon.**


	12. Rescue Mission

**Coming at you guys with a 6k chapter. Yeah, yeah, I know this is a re-upload. But I wasn't happy with how I ended the original, as I rushed it out before I had to get to bed, so I took it down and rewrote the ending. So yeah...see you on the other side.**

Kobalt loved Vaccuo. He had grown up in the downtown area, and even after travelling the four kingdoms, still preferred the place to anywhere else. "There's no place like home," he chucked to himself as he strolled down Main Street. Suddenly, a crackly voice spoke in his ear, "Kobalt, are you in position?"

Kobalt's grin disappeared as he reached up and tapped his earpiece, attempting to dispel the static. "Yeah, I see the shop."

"Okay, good. Serena you are go," Daedalus whispered, as he perused the Dust shop's selection, feigning interest.

Serena casually walked into the store, strolling up to the clerk.

"Can I help you?" the clerk asked. She was a middle-aged woman, dark complexion, and wire frame glasses that seemed to magnify her deep blue eyes.

"Yes actually. I'm looking for one Cinder Fall."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"Her sister doesn't need an appointment. Tell her that," Serena leaned on the counter, using all the body language intimidation techniques she knew to force the woman's hand.

After a moment of indecision, the woman grabbed the phone behind the counter. "Hello? Sorry to disturb you, miss, but there's someone here to see you. She claims to be your sister."

Mere moments after the words left her lips, a shelf in the far back of the store swung open to reveal an elevator of cold metal. Serena smirked at the clerk and walked into the elevator.

"And...now!" Daedalus slipped into the elevator as he rasped the words out.

Across the street, Weiss grabbed the back of Yang's head to protect her from whiplash and shot forward, nothing but a blur to a casual onlooker, and landed in a heap with Yang in the elevator just as the doors slid shut.

Yang got up and brushed herself off. "So, now we just...look for Ruby?"

"We don't know anything about this place. It's our only option. Stealth will be essential for everyone except Serena," Daedalus replied, staring off into space, his thoughts elsewhere.

The elevator opened, and the four stepped out into a room of cold metal, with three doors leading away in different directions.

Cinder shot up in the chair she had been sprawled in just a moment before, eyes glued to the security cameras. She reached for her scroll and called her underlings, informing them of the situation.

"We should stick together. I doubt they can beat all four of us," Yang said, walking forward toward the door directly in front of them. But as the group followed her, the door slammed down, splitting the team in two.

Daedalus activated his earpiece. "They know we're here. So much for stealth." With that, he shot off through an adjacent door, Cube unraveling into two katanas that Yang was pretty sure were glowing purple. She turned to go in the opposite direction, but was halted by the door slamming shut. She turned to go to another door, but found they were shut as well. She swallowed her rising panic and surveyed her situation. She was in a metal box of a room, about thirty feet by thirty feet. It was identical to the room she had come from and the room she had seen Daedalus run into. _It's a maze,_ she realized. But as she put her hand to her earpiece to tell her comrades, a familiar hodgepodge of color sauntered into the room through a door that had opened for less than a second. Neo grinned as she stared down the blonde, determined to finish their quarrel they had started months ago then and there.

Cinder smirked as she cut the group in two by closing the door they were going through.

"Neo, please dispose of Miss Xiao Long here," Cinder jabbed a finger at the computer monitor displaying the security camera footage.

Neo licked her lips. "With pleasure," she snarled as she teleported toward the girl.

Cinder sealed off Yang and stood from the door controls, stalking toward the room where Ruby Rose was held captive.

"Hello, Ruby. Listen, your friends are here to find you. So, unfortunately for you, that means I get to try this prototype early," Cinder said, flicking the needle of a syringe filled to the brim with a thick, black substance.

"What is that?" Ruby quavered, exhausted.

"This is the Acara virus. It's an experimental, lab developed virus that attacks the brain and controls it. Basically," Cinder smiled wickedly, "It's sort of a form of mind control. It also provides astronomical enhancements of your strength. Now," Cinder jabbed the syringe into Ruby's struggling arm, slowly pushing all of the substance into her bloodstream. Ruby immediately went into convulsions, her chains rattling from the rapid movement.

"This should only take a moment. Then you're going to be my greatest asset," Cinder kneeled down by the struggling girl and waited for her new weapon to prepare itself.

Yang stared down Neo with anger, hatred, and, to Neo's delight, a little bit of fear. This time, Neo wasn't playing defensively. She pulled her stiletto blade from its sheath and charged toward Yang.

Yang blocked her first strike but she was caught off-guard by the amount of power the small girl had packed into the attack. She involuntarily took a step back from the hit, and Neo followed up with a vicious strike to Yang's arm, causing her to cry out in pain.

Yang attempted to retaliate by firing a bolt from Ember Celica, but the fiery attack was effortlessly dispelled by Neo's umbrella, and she followed with a jab to Yang's ribs, causing Yang to double over. Neo swept Yang's left leg out from under her, grabbed it, and used Yang's momentum and weight against her to send her crashing to the ground.

Yang fought to remain conscious as darkness flittered on the edges of her vision. Neo strolled over, and Yang got a sense of deja vu as she raised the blade to deliver the killing blow.

The thin blade clanged against the metal ground as Yang rolled out of the way. She twisted and kicked Neo's legs out, causing the shorter girl to fall to the ground. In the same motion, Yang leapt to her feet and jumped upward. She loaded Ember Celica and plunged downward, slamming the gauntlet directly into Neo's chest. Not pausing for Neo to recover, Yang grabbed Neo's ankle and roughly threw her against one of the four closed metal doors. With a guttural cry, she slammed into Neo, using every iota of her strength. The door crumpled like paper and the two fighters crashed into the connected room.

Yang stood up from the unconscious girl with a smirk on her face, proud of her accomplishment after being demolished in their previous meeting. Because of the incident on the train, whenever she had trained with Daedalus she had insisted on his use of Neo's umbrella as his weapon. A cry of pain cut through the settling dust, snapping Yang back to reality. She took off in the direction of the sound.

"Kobalt, I suggest you activating them now," Daedalus muttered as he strode into the next room of the maze-like base. The door slammed shut behind him, and he sighed with annoyance when he saw the reason why.

Emerald Sustri and Mercury Black stood on the other end of the room, both looked ready for combat.

"Is this all you sent to kill me, Cinder?" Daedalus questioned, looking directly into the security camera in the room.

He grumbled in the silence. Without warning, he fired a bolt of purple energy from one of his katanas, striking Emerald in the stomach, knocking her against the wall. Mercury reached to help his partner up, but was forced to stop as Daedalus had already raced across the room to engage the boy. He slashed Mercury several times before retreating to the center of the room.

Emerald and Mercury quickly recovered and proceeded to move to opposite sides of Daedalus, circling like sharks, looking for an opening. Daedalus blew air out in boredom, causing his hair to float for a moment, and sprinted toward Emerald, slamming into her. He turned to block the foot aimed for his head from Mercury, and when a second foot came in for a kick, he leapt out of the way, causing him to catch his partner in the head.

As Daedalus moved to deliver the killing blow, he was suddenly catapulted across the room by a blur of movement and slammed into the door. The mysterious new fighter had hit him so hard, he destroyed the door, landing in a heap in the next room.

Daedalus quickly jumped back to his feet, using Yang's semblance to absorb the blow. He had gotten up just in time to block a flurry of attacks from the new opponent, and his eyes widened in surprise as he registered the face of his enemy.

Ruby Rose stared back at Daedalus. Well, what was left of Ruby Rose. "Acara virus," Daedalus whispered, staring at Ruby's jet black eyes. They were a solid black as they lacked pupils, and they gave Daedalus a seriously uneasy feeling. He surveyed his situation. _Three versus one,_ he thought grimly. _Not optimal._

Yang reached the room of the scream just in time to see Daedalus being slammed through a door. She furrowed her brow in confusion as she saw who he was engaged in combat with.

Daedalus spotted Yang across the room and gave her a miniscule nod, his eyes darting to Emerald and Mercury, who were already advancing on him. Yang nodded and snuck toward them, trying to keep her shoes from rapping on the metal floors.

Daedalus faced Ruby, staring down the formidable fighter. "Now!" he shouted, snapping forward to engage the brainwashed girl.

Weiss was growing more and more frustrated as she navigated this maze of identical rooms. She growled as she saw a mark on the wall, one she had made minutes before to signify she had already been to the room. She turned to leave, but came face to face with several dozen White Fang foot soldiers. Weiss had no idea how they had snuck up on her, but that thought was pushed out of her mind as she saw who was leading them.

The White Fang Lieutenant laughed behind his mask as he revved his chainsaw. "Back for more, Schnee? This time, there's no kitty to save you," he boomed as his soldiers fanned out, surrounding the pale girl.

Weiss looked on with more interest than concern as the soldiers enclosed her. "I see you brought some friends. Afraid you couldn't defeat me alone? Well, I'm going to let you in on a little secret," she dropped her voice to a whisper, "So did I. Now, Kobalt!"

With that, Weiss dived to the ground as the ceiling exploded.

Nora and Kobalt smirked down at the bewildered White Fang, Kobalt still holding the detonator to the sticky bombs he had placed in the Dust shop. With a battle cry that would frighten a Goliath, Kobalt leapt into the fray. Nora was slightly more reserved, launching in with merely her signature giggle.

The White Fang were completely caught off-guard and their response showed. Some soldiers ran, others raised their hands in surrender, still others were so confused by the explosion they were swinging their weapons randomly, hitting their comrades. One of the latter was promptly stopped by a hammer into his jaw, knocking him through the now open roof and out of the shop above it.

Kobalt slammed his broadsword into the ground, causing hairline fractures to run through the metal as several White Fang soldiers were knocked off their feet from the impact. Kobalt closed his eyes and activated his semblance. His skin rippled and grew, becoming vastly more muscular and scaley. His face elongated into a snout, and he sprouted small black horns from his head. When the transformation ended, Kobalt was no longer there. What took his place instead was a ten foot long red dragon, which promptly breathed a line of fire directly into the mass of the remaining White Fang and leapt around the room, biting and clawing and generally causing mass panic.

While the combination of dragon-Kobalt and Nora were demolishing the White Fang on one side of the room, a much more heated battle was taking place on the other. Weiss rolled under a swing from the White Fang Lieutenant, the roar of his chainsaw being too close for comfort. Weiss sliced at his legs and jumped away, but the strikes seemed to do nothing but irritate him.

Weiss quickly changed tactics and switched Myrtenaster to its red setting just in time to block what would have been a fatal blow from the chainsaw. She quickly switched the weapon to its purple setting and swung it at the now off-balance Lieutenant. He caught the attack in the chest and slammed against the wall, a grunt of pain escaping him before he got back up and charged again.

_He can just sustain so much damage!,_ Weiss thought in frustration as she was forced to retreat as he swung the weapon at her again. She pulled the rapier up and shot forward, but the Lieutenant was ready for that attack, and he sidestepped it. With unprecedented quickness, he grabbed her wrist and, in one motion, threw her against the wall, causing her to crumple like a rag doll.

As Weiss fought to remain conscious, she was helpless to defend herself as the Lieutenant laughed maniacally as he raised the circulating blade above his head to deliver the fatal blow. Weiss frantically scanned the area for any possible help, but Nora and Kobalt were too far away to make it over to her in time. She closed her eyes and waited for death.

And waited. And waited. Her eyes snapped open as she looked up to see the last person she expected to be protecting her.

Blake stood above Weiss, blocking the chainsaw that had been aimed for her head. The Lieutenant hadn't let up when he met resistance, so the chainsaw was now grinding into her weapon, sparks flying.

"Come on, Ice Queen. Don't have all day here," she yelled over the sound of the chainsaw.

Weiss summoned a dopey smile as she struggled to her feet, still dazed from the massive hit she'd taken.

Blake slipped Gambol Shroud away from their enemies' chainsaw, causing the weapon to embed itself in the ground. She then sidestepped to allow Weiss to deliver a strike to the large fighter's chest. He stumbled backward, and Blake capitalized on the moment of unbalance, leaping over her teammate and unleashing a blur of attacks with assistance from a gold glyph from Weiss. Blake finished the now lopsided battle by flipping forward, grabbing the man's arm as she did so, and slammed him into the ground, using his strength to her advantage.

The fighter hit the ground with a thud and lay still. The two girls stood over him, breathing heavily, tired but invigorated.

Blake turned to Weiss. "Listen, Weiss. You and I come from very...different, some might even say opposite backgrounds. But that shouldn't affect our friendship or how we view each other. I realize I've been very obstinate as of late."

"No kidding," Weiss breathed. Blake shot her a tired glare and continued, "But I've been stressed as of late. I guess it started with-" Blake's story was cut off by Daedalus' voice blaring in her earpiece.

"Could use a little help, girls! Ruby's been...affected by her time here, and I need help subduing her," he yelled over the clang of metal from his and Ruby's weapons meeting.

Blake raised an eyebrow and looked at Weiss with concern. The two girls rushed off toward what they hoped was where Daedalus was.

Cinder watched her new weapon fight Daedalus with delight. _It's more than I could have hoped for,_ she thought to herself as she watched her old acquaintance Daedalus go catapulting through a wall. _Good start,_ _but Daedalus learns quickly. If the fight drags on too long he'll win,_ she thought as she stood up and walked toward the door out of the command center.

And found it was locked. She frowned and pushed more forcefully, only to come up empty-handed. She whirled around to activate the manual override mechanism for the door, only to see her sister, Serena, standing on the other side of the room, twirling the key necessary for the override around her finger. Serena smirked as she saw her sister's shocked expression. She stood up and strode to her sister.

"You know, it's kind of fun. Watching your defenses crumble."

"I don't know if you've checked, but right now I'm winning," Cinder kept a calm demeanor, even though she was furious.

"I did check," Serena pointed to the sea of monitors as Cinder's White Fang troops were being wiped out by Daedalus' attack.

Cinder's eyes widened in shock as she watched Kobalt and Nora decimate her main attack force. She whipped her head back around to see her sister with a triumphant grin on her face.

"So sure you're winning, sis?"

Cinder finally lost her cool and charged at her sister, summoning her weapon from thin air as she did so.

Serena calmly grabbed her scythe and deflected Cinder's wild attacks. But she knew that in pure combat, she would lose this fight simply because Cinder had more experience in both combat and with her semblance. But she also knew she was preventing Cinder from entering what was becoming a very large fight that was quite evenly matched.

Yang slammed Ember Celica into the ground at the feet of Emerald and Mercury, blowing them away as Daedalus engaged Ruby on the other side of the room. She fired a bolt toward Mercury, who rolled out of the way, and turned to fight Emerald. Emerald swung her sickle toward Yang's neck, which Yang rolled under and countered with a sucker punch to the gut, causing the green-haired girl to double over. Before Yang could get a knee to her chin to knock her out, however, Mercury's fist came out of nowhere and crashed into her side, forcing her to retreat several yards away to recover.

Meanwhile Daedalus was growing more and more concerned. Ruby's hands moved in a blur and Daedalus was barely able to block her flurry of attacks, much less counter them. He yelled out for help, hoping his teammates had disposed of the White Fang and it was quiet enough to hear him.

He used Ruby's semblance to close the gap and actually got a few hits in before Ruby reacted and swung at him, forcing him to retreat once again. This time, however, Ruby followed up by using her semblance to prevent Daedalus from distancing himself from her, and punched him, sending him flying across the room over to the other battle going on. He embedded one of his katanas in the ground to slow himself down. He dealt a few blows to Emerald and Mercury before engaging with Ruby once again, the two skilled fighters locked in a deadly dance of blades.

Roman Torchwick had wanted to spend his day off in peace. But the explosion that came from the Dust shop they had been using as cover for their operation told him that wasn't going to happen. He sighed, the exasperated sound turning into a yell as he took out his scroll and dialed Adam Taurus.

"Hey Adam? We have a bit of a situation down at the Dust shop. Need you down here." He ended the call and ran toward the billowing smoke, grumbling all the way there.

Weiss and Blake sprinted through the facility, but sadly for them, the place was a lot bigger than they had anticipated.

"You can't even tell if you are walking in circles," Blake murmured as they took arbitrary turns. "Much less know if you're going the right way."

Weiss opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by the appearance of Roman Torchwick.

"Kitty cat. Ice Queen. How nice to see you two again," he said with the bravado and swagger that had come to be synonymous with Roman Torchwick.

"You couldn't even beat me, Roman. What do you think you're going to do against both of us," Blake hissed, teeth clenched.

"Oh, silly kitty. You see, I was so impressed by your fighting last time we met I decided to bring an old friend of yours to help me."

Adam Taurus slithered out from the shadows, stopping at Roman's side as he pulled Wilt out of its sheath.

Blake looked at Adam with a pained expression. "Adam, please. Don't make me choose. Just let Ruby go. Because I will choose Ruby if you force my hand."

For the first time in years, Blake heard Adam speak. "Oh, Blake. That girl is more important than you could ever imagine. Important enough for me to do anything to prevent you from getting her back," he responded, a hint of amusement evident in his tone.

Without warning he darted forward, a blow aimed for Blake's neck. Weiss stepped in front of her friend and blocked the attack, and attempted to counter but Adam was too fast, dancing out of her reach.

The battle began, with Blake and Weiss working as a single unit, focusing most of their attacks on Adam. Roman provided support for Adam, but didn't engage in hand-to-hand combat intentionally, as he knew he couldn't beat either of them alone. But he did have enough skill with his cane that he was able to fend off any attempted strike from the girls before the had to go help their teammate with Adam.

Cinder sprinted toward her sister, sensing an opening. Their fight had worn on for almost five minutes, and Serena's fatigue was beginning to show. Cinder blocked Serena's attempted slice to her midsection and wrapped her free hand around her sister's wrist. She twisted, causing Serena to cry out in pain and drop her scythe, and Cinder kicked it out of reach. She then spun around, still with a grip on the arm, until she was behind her sister and had her arm painfully wrenched behind her.

Cinder jabbed at the back of Serena's knees with her foot, causing the younger girl to drop to her knees. She then wrapped her free arm around her sister's neck in a headlock and squeezed, cutting off Serena's oxygen. She felt Serena's struggling become less and less forceful as unconsciousness was no doubt beckoning.

Finally, Serena's muscles relaxed as she lost consciousness. Cinder released her and grabbed the key from inside her pocket. She unlocked the door, and was about to stride out, but the glint of her sister's weapon caught her eye.

She grabbed the large scythe, experimentally swinging it. _Might need it,_ she thought as she ran out of the room, and toward where she knew Daedalus and Ruby were fighting. Daedalus was the only one she was really worried about, and if she could end him here, it would hopefully deter her other enemies from meddling.

But as she rounded the corner to where the battle was, her eyes widened in shock as Daedalus stood, unharmed, in front of her, Ruby, Mercury, and Emerald slumped on the other side of the room. He grinned devilishly.

"Look who showed up late to the party. Never want to do that, Cinder."

_Earlier…_

Daedalus wove in between the shots of Crescent Rose as he attempted to advance on Ruby. He growled in frustration as a bullet grazed his shoulder, pain shooting through his body.

_Only going to get one shot at this,_ he thought grimly as he changed tactics to a more desperate option. He used Cube to change one of his katanas into a replica of Ember Celica, and used Ruby's semblance to speed toward her.

Just before he got into range of her strike, he fell to his knees and used the momentum he had gathered to slide under her attack, the scythe whistling past his face as he leaned backward to avoid it.

Now too close to Ruby to have to worry about the scythe, he leapt to his feet and focused all of Yang's semblance into one punch to Ruby's gut, activating the shotgun gauntlet as he did so.

A colossal boom shook the facility as Ruby Rose was blown back. Knowing she was going to be rendered unconscious, either by the blow or the impact, Daedalus turned to Mercury and Emerald.

Yang barely caught a glimpse of her sister because she was moving so fast. She felt sympathy for her as she had had the same experience when she had fought him in the arena. Still confused as to why she was fighting against them instead of with them, she almost failed to notice Daedalus using Kobalt's semblance, transforming into a twenty-foot long, gold scaled dragon. But Mercury and Emerald sure did.

They backed away in awe and fear as Daedalus lumbered toward the duo. He swept his claws out, catching them both in one swipe, slamming them against the wall with a clang that made Yang wince.

She let out an involuntary gasp as she turned to see the large dragon, and gasped again as it shrunk back down into Daedalus. He responded with a lopsided grin.

The two stood, panting as the adrenaline from the battle wore off and the fatigue set in.

That was when Daedalus heard the click of heels on metal. He wheeled around to come face to face with Cinder Fall.

Neo jolted into consciousness. She surveyed her surroundings as she struggled to her feet, brushing herself off. As she looked around, she spotted her brother advancing on Cinder, blocking her attacks with ease.

Thinking quickly, she activated her semblance and managed to teleport both herself and Cinder out of the facility and onto the street above.

"We need to get away from here," she whispered to Cinder, who nodded. The two strolled away from the scene, police sirens blaring in their ears.

These sirens did not go unnoticed by Roman Torchwick. He looked to Adam and jerked his head toward the door, signalling for them to leave.

"Sorry to cut this little chat short, but it looks like we gotta scram," he smirked as he slowly backed away from the two girls. "Kitty, Ice Queen. Always a pleasure."

With that, he threw a red dust crystal onto the ground and fired a shot from his Melodic Cudgel at it, causing Weiss and Blake to dive out of the blast radius.

As Blake forced herself back to her feet, she found nothing but an empty room, save Weiss. She groaned in frustration and slammed her fist into the wall, causing an echo to parade through the mostly silent rooms.

"I'll get Torchwick eventually," she muttered, chiding herself at her outburst.

Daedalus rushed to Ruby's side, slinging the girl over his shoulder.

"Why was she fighting us?" Yang asked between breaths, exerted from her two fights.

"She was infected with something called Acara virus. You know how you're told never to allow Grimm blood near you? Well this virus is why. It's Grimm blood, but I think it's been tampered with, as the virus didn't give inhuman strength back when it was actually an outbreak. What it did was block the region of the brain responsible for emotion, and affected cognitive function, turning the infected into remorseless killers," Daedalus rattled off, knowing they didn't have a ton of time.

"Well can you save her?"

"No. But," he gave a sly smile, "I do know someone who can."

Daedalus activated Neo's semblance, teleporting his teammates to the location of Ruby's only hope.

Sun Wukong sat in his room, meditating. He was trying his hardest to ignore the blaring sirens from outside, as he assumed it was his teammates doing something stupid.

_Again,_ he thought, smiling to himself. Suddenly his door swung open, and someone he thought he would never see again entered.

"D-Daedalus?" Sun faltered, in shock at the reappearance of the boy who had saved his life three years prior.

"Hey, Sun. Need your help." Daedalus was all business as he gently set Ruby down on the floor in front of Sun.

"Where did you go? You said-"

"I know what I said, Sun. But if you don't use your Aura right now Ruby is going to die. She has an aggressive strain of Acara virus."

Sun did a double take when he heard the words. "Acara virus? Are you sure?"

"Has anyone ever told you you ask too many questions? You know as well as I do the period that your Semblance can heal Acara virus. And it's already been at least ten minutes." Daedalus snapped, a dark expression on his face.

After hearing the minute marker on Ruby's infection, Sun shut up and jumped off his bed, rushing to the unconscious girl on the floor. He pressed his hands to the center of her chest and closed his eyes.

Yang sprinted through the corridors of Vacuo's Huntsman school, attempting to find Daedalus and where he had gone. He had activated Ruby's semblance as soon as he had finished teleporting everyone out of Cinder's facility. Yang growled in anger as she peeked into another empty classroom. Downtrodden and frustrated, she decided to go to Sun's dorm to see if he would know where Daedalus could've gone.

To her surprise, Daedalus was already there. She watched in awe as blue energy ran from Sun's hands across Ruby, wrapping her in a cocoon like energy field. She tiptoed to Daedalus, not wanting to break Sun's concentration.

"What's he doing?" she whispered.

"He's trying to get rid of the Acara virus from Ruby's body. His Aura power is that he can cure disease easily. But I don't know how far the virus has progressed. It might already be too late," Daedalus said grimly, never taking his eyes off the spectacle that was taking place in front of them.

Yang nodded and silently looked on, considerably more frightened than she had been when she had asked.

After around thirty seconds, the cocoon dissolved and Sun opened his eyes. He stood up and plopped back onto his bed.

"I couldn't get rid of it, it had progressed too far. But I was able to subdue it. I left a switch in her mind so she can activate it if the need arises. She should be able to control the subdued version, but if she keeps it up too long, she's going to lose control. No more than five minutes at a time, with at least a couple days to rest in between uses. Seven minutes absolute maximum," Sun spoke quickly. He gasped for air. "Can't believe I said that all in one breath. Neptune owes me money," he grinned and scampered from the room, leaving Yang, Daedalus, and a fast-awakening Ruby Rose.

"Isn't this team SSSN's dorm?" Ruby questioned weakly. "Why are we OOF!" Her words were cut off by her sister giving her a crushing bear hug. Tears were dripping down Yang's face as relief flooded over her.

"I thought they were gonna kill you, I really did," she whispered.

When Yang finally released her, Ruby spoke again.

"What...happened to me? I remember Cinder saying something about me becoming her greatest asset and then….nothing."

"You were infected with Acara virus. Sun had to subdue the being now living inside you. It's essentially what you would be if you were a Grimm. A remorseless, bloodthirsty version of you. But Sun subdued it, so you can use it to your advantage. If you want to activate it, I'm pretty sure you just have to think about releasing it, and it will happen," Daedalus replied. "Don't do it now, though!" he almost yelled as Ruby closed her eyes to picture it. She cringed.

"Sorry."

"The maximum amount of time you're going to be able to keep it up is about five minutes, with a few days of rest in between each use. Otherwise it will take over you again and you'll try to kill us all."

Ruby was silent for a moment. "So what you're saying is that there's like an extra person living inside me?"

"Yes. Sort of. I wouldn't really classify it as a person, per se."

"I should give her a name," Ruby grinned.

Daedalus slapped his forehead with his palm. "Ruby, you do not give a psychotic killer version of yourself living inside you a name."

"Cerise sounds nice, I think. Yeah, her name's Cerise."

Daedalus threw his hands up and gave a defeated sigh. "At least we know she's back," he grumbled to Yang as he exited the room to check up on his teammates.

Ruby bounded into her dorm for the first time in a week. She flashed a toothy grin as she looked at their ridiculous bed setup.

"I should be an interior designer," she remarked to Yang, who refused to leave her side during the entire trip back.

"For you, that career and the career of 'accidental mass murderer' kind of go hand in hand," Yang said, rolling her eyes.

Weiss was already in the room, and had changed into her pajamas. But Ruby was having none of that.

"Weisssss…" she drawled, shaking her partner.

"Nngh. Huh?"

"Come on, I'm finally back! Let's go do something!"

"Ruby! I'm trying to sleep! I just busted my butt for a week trying to retrieve you! Allow me this!" Weiss snapped, tiredness vivid in her response.

"Okay," Ruby responded, deflated. She bolted out of the room, Yang following after her.

"You know, for someone who has a crush on her, you really do treat Ruby poorly," a voice rang out in what Weiss had thought was an empty room. Her eyes shot open to reveal Daedalus sitting on her windowsill, similar to the way he had when he had broken up the fight between Weiss and Blake.

"I don't like her! Not...like that, anyway," she shot back.

"Oh come on, it's not hard to see the signs. If any other member of your team is abducted in that situation, you would react much like Yang did, and become very angry. But not with Ruby. With _Ruby_," he emphasized, walking over to her, "You got quiet and brooding. That's behavior I expect from Blake, not you. Put two and two together, and eureka, you like her."

Weiss let out a defeated sigh. She knew how good Daedalus' perceptual skills were. It had saved them on many a mission, and he clearly hadn't regressed.

"Please don't tell her. I shouldn't like her. It could destroy our team if she found out," Weiss pleaded.

Daedalus gave a half smile. "Have you ever considered, just once, that she feels the same about you?"

"Of course I have! But….what if she doesn't? Which is way more likely," she grumbled.

Daedalus leapt back to the window, landing on the roof. He leaned back inside to give a parting word.

"Just tell her. If you internalize it it's going to affect you eventually. You can't put up walls forever Weiss."

With that, he disappeared from the window, running back to his own dorm.

Blake read the words on the page for what seemed like the thousandth time.

_Unless you come to the place where you were initiated into the White Fang alone and weaponless in ten days, they will die._

Attached were two pictures of a man and a woman, both faunas and tied to small wooden chairs in a dark room. They both had gags in their mouths and they both had panicked expressions on their faces. A tear rolled down her cheek as thoughts raced through her mind. The most prominent one being, _Who would do this to my parents?_

**So yeah, White Rose! Shipping is kind of inevitable when I write a story this long. And we got an inkling as to why Blake has been so...distraught in the last few chapters (There, necro. Ask and you shall receive). By the way, I now have a twitter, where you guys can shoot me story ideas and stuff. I might ask for opinions on things I'm planning on doing in this series, etc. It's IntoShadow_ (Don't know why anyone would take IntoShadow but whatever). So yeah, next time, Daedalus gets called in for that mission Ozpin was planning way back in the Arena chapter, and team RWBY hatches a plan to save Blake's parents...**


	13. Daedalus' New Pupil

**A quick chapter where Daedalus goes all Morpheus on Jaune before I have to buckle down for schoolwork. End of the trimester is this Wednesday, and I have two projects that I was supposed to be doing all tri long, but have left to the last minute because I'm a bad person. With that and Thanksgiving coming up for us overweight Americans, I probably won't post another chapter until at least Sunday.**

Ozpin sat at his desk, reading over the after action report for Operation Thorns that Daedalus had supplied him with. He heard the door to his office open, but didn't bother to look up. He already knew who it was.

"You wanted to see me?" Daedalus questioned, walking over to the desk.

"Indeed I did," Ozpin replied, finally glancing up from the report. "I have another mission for you. I've received several….disturbing reports of heavy White Fang activity to the west. We know approximately where it is, and we need someone to put a stop to it. The last time we found a White Fang force like this, it resulted in a massive breach of Vale."

"I'll get my team ready," Daedalus sighed, turning toward the door.

"Wait." Ozpin called. Daedalus paused, hand on the knob. He turned back to the professor.

"This mission will require a specific set of skills, and right now the only person in the school who will be able to assist you is…." he trailed off.

"Why are you reluctant to tell me?" Daedalus raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not sure you're going to like it. It's Jaune Arc."

Daedalus' eyes bulged. "Jaune? Like, blonde, bad flirting Jaune? Wait," realization dawned in Daedalus' eyes. "There's no way. Is he the one with the semblance that I've been feeling? The really….dark one?"

Ozpin nodded slightly. "You can't tell anyone about his semblance. Not even him. An untrained semblance of that power could kill him."

"Yeah, if that got out, it could be….catastrophic. Can I at least train him? Make him...not completely useless?"

"You've only got three days. It took too long to confirm the reports. I can't afford any longer than that," Ozpin said, redirecting his attention to his papers, ending the conversation.

Daedalus strode out of the room, deep in thought. _He has potential. Potential I can work with,_ he decided as he walked into the team JNPR dorm.

He gestured to Jaune, who was having an argument with Nora about whether or not a maple syrup swimming pool would be a good idea. "I need you, outside."

He wheeled around and walked out. Nora gave Jaune a strange look as he moved toward the door.

As soon as Jaune was outside the door, Daedalus grabbed him roughly and used Ruby's semblance to blast down to the arena.

"Daedalus, what are you doing?" Jaune asked, bewildered.

"I have three days to make you into the best fighter I can. Then Ozpin is sending both of us on a mission. So training starts now."

"Shouldn't I get my sword and shield for this?"

"I need you to be solid at the fundamental level. First thing's first, all I want you to do," he strode up to the shorter boy so he was mere inches away from him, "Is hit me."

Jaune shrugged, and swung at Daedalus' arm. Daedalus slapped his wrist away. Jaune's brow furrowed and he tried again, this time swinging for Daedalus' chest, which Daedalus slapped away as well. Jaune now gritted his teeth and swung at the other boy haphazardly, which Daedalus deflected with ease.

"Come on, Jaune. Focus. Learn my patterns, see what I do. Read and react," he said, throwing a quick punch to Jaune's shoulder as he did so.

Jaune ran toward the other boy and aimed a punch for his head. But before Daedalus could deflect it, he pulled it back as he reached out his leg to knock Daedalus to the ground.

Daedalus flipped backward to avoid the attempted leg sweep, and countered with a roundhouse kick to Jaune's left side.

"You're being impulsive, Jaune. All I'm doing is waiting for you to make mistakes. So don't make them," Daedalus cautioned as he walked in a circle around the blonde.

Pyrrha was bored. She had sat through a half hour of Professor Oobleck's lecture on why dancing turtles could warn you of a nearby Grimm presence. She finally just asked to go the bathroom to escape. As she walked through the normally quiet halls, she heard something that made her frown. _Why are people in the arena? _she wondered, diverting her course to investigate. _There shouldn't be a class in there right now__._

She walked in, prepared to tell off what she assumed were some random students settling a score or a bet. Instead, she found her teammate sparring with Daedalus. She decided not to say anything, and sat down silently to watch. _Besides,_ she told herself, _this is far more interesting than that lecture._

Daedalus darted in for a quick punch, but Jaune was prepared, and blocked it.

"Good, Jaune. Now translate that learning into your attack."

Jaune now came at him with much more precise, focused attacks. He feigned a jab for Daedalus' arm and tried for a sucker punch to the gut, but Daedalus was too quick.

"You overextended yourself, Jaune," he informed, punctuating the mistake with a chop to the boy's neck.

Jaune retreated, rubbing the pained area.

"Never invest so much in an attack that you're not ready for a counter," Daedalus called out.

They went back and forth, Daedalus shouting advice and revealing errors with painful consequences. But as Pyrrha watched, she saw that Jaune was adapting. His strikes were becoming much more balanced, and he became better and better and blocking Daedalus' counters. Against most other opponents, he would have already gotten a punch in. But he was fighting Daedalus Valkyrie.

After an hour, Daedalus finally ended their training. "My everything hurts," Jaune complained, hobbling toward the exit, back toward his dorm.

"Well, it's gonna hurt more in a bit, Jaune. I'm only giving you half an hour."

Jaune groaned as he slipped out of the arena.

Daedalus was silent for a while. "He has potential, Pyrrha. But you've been teaching him incorrectly."

After recovering from her initial surprise that Daedalus had noticed her, she replied, "Oh really? How so?"

"You teach him the way people taught you. Not your fault, but Jaune is different in his learning. He needs consequences for wrong actions, because when faced with the threat of pain, he learns on the fly. Did you see how he developed over our session?"

"It was remarkable. But, no offense to Jaune, why are you training him? He's not exactly a talented fighter."

Daedalus smiled. "Ozpin is sending us on a mission. Cinder's plans are now in motion, and there's something going on in the west."

"But why Jaune? Why not one of your new teammates or a member of team RWBY?"

"The mission requires certain….abilities. And at this school, the only one that fits the criteria that we need is tall, blonde, and clueless out there," he pointed in the general direction of the team JNPR dorm.

"You need him for his semblance," Pyrrha realized. "What is it, anyway?"

"I….can't tell you," Daedalus responded cautiously.

"He's my teammate! What could be so embarrassing that you can't tell me?"

"Not embarrassing. More….dangerous," Daedalus said darkly, not-so-subtly telling Pyrrha to drop the subject.

"But what…..no. No, that's not possible." Pyrrha's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as she understood the gravity of the situation.

"See? This is exactly why I didn't want to discuss it," Daedalus said grumpily. He wasn't too worried about Pyrrha, she would have found out anyway. Who he was worried about was her teammate, his younger sister Nora. "You can't tell anyone, okay? And not a 'I'm going to go tell Nora as soon as Daedalus turns his back' secret. A secret secret. You got that?"

"Yeah, of course," Pyrrha muttered, still reeling from her discovery of Jaune's semblance.

They were silent for a while, as Pyrrha recovered from her shock.

Eventually, Jaune lumbered back in, looking tired. Daedalus looked at his watch.

"You're three minutes late, Jaune. I want thirty push-ups. Next time it'll be twenty for each minute. And yes, Pyrrha's here to watch. Now start," Daedalus said curtly.

Jaune groaned and dropped down. As soon as he was done with the push-ups, Daedalus walked over to him.

"Addition of difficulty. Try to hit me, but I won't just counter this time. I'm going to look for attacks."

Jaune immediately jabbed at Daedalus' face, then when Daedalus went to deflect it, he aimed a punch for Daedalus' exposed chest. The green-haired boy twisted his body so the punch met empty air, and countered with a kick to Jaune's chest, knocking the boy back.

He followed the attack with a punch to the off-balance blonde's stomach. He turned 180 degrees and grabbed Jaune's arm over his shoulder. Daedalus pulled, and flipped Jaune over his shoulder, causing him to land in a heap on the ground.

Daedalus looked for the knockout with a fist toward his opponent's jaw, but Jaune recovered and rolled out of the way. He leapt to his feet and charged at Daedalus, attacking with all the speed he could muster.

Daedalus blocked the attacks with ease. He grabbed Jaune's arm and twisted around so he was behind Jaune, with his arm painfully shoved against his back.

"Never try to out-speed someone you know is faster than you," Daedalus whispered into the boy's ear before pushing his arm farther up his back, causing Jaune to cry out, before releasing him.

This went on for another forty five minutes, with Jaune's aura becoming more and more exerted. Finally, Jaune went in for one last attack. He charged and swung for Daedalus' temple, before attempting a leg sweep, both of which were deflected by Daedalus.

He then kicked for Daedalus' stomach, which Daedalus caught with his hands.

"Come on, stop trying to hit me and hit me!" Daedalus yelled in frustration.

Something seemed to snap in Jaune. Daedalus saw his expression harden and the gears start turning in his head.

He leapt forward and punched toward Daedalus' face, distracting him from the kick toward his knee.

When Daedalus blocked the first, he was forced to switch focus and drop his body down so he could block Jaune's kick. Jaune swept Daedalus' feet out from under him, and before he hit the ground, punched him square in the chest, sending him spiraling to the ground.

Daedalus grinned as he jumped to his feet and walked over to his pupil.

"That's where we'll end the lesson for today. Pyrrha?" he called out to the girl in the stands, who had watched with interest throughout the sparring match, "Help Jaune here back to your dorm. He's had a rough day."

And with that, Daedalus strode out of the arena, leaving Jaune and Pyrrha alone.

Weiss sat on the floor of the shower, water cascading over her. She didn't normally take lengthy showers, but lately, it had been anything but normal. She was locked in two simultaneous internal arguments, and she didn't know which one to address with more attention.

_Ruby and Blake,_ she thought. _My two teammates, and I have a dilemma with each. With Blake, well, she's not herself. She's being bothered by something, and she's trying to internalize it._

Weiss produced a grim smile. _It's not working. I need to find out what's wrong._ _But what if she finds out? She'll just become more furious with me, and that might get us killed in a mission._

_And then there's Ruby. I have feelings for her, but how do I tell her that? I mean, she's cool, right? If I tell her, and she doesn't feel the same, she'll just tell me and forget it ever happened, right? Or will she…?_

Weiss groaned and rubbed her temples, indecisive. She turned off the water and redressed, sighing.

As she stepped out of the bathroom, to her surprise, she saw Blake reading over a letter, a look of serious concern and fear in her eyes.

_Well, one of my problems might just resolve itself right here,_ Weiss thought as she walked over to discover why Blake had been under duress during the past week.


	14. The Only Man I Fear

****I am really bad at estimating. Surprise chapter! I managed to get a hold of my grandma's computer, so I typed up a quick chapter. Got a review yesterday about how Daedalus was plot armored, so I decided to introduce….*dramatic music* a new villain! I was planning on introducing him soon anyway, but yeah, say hello to Azrael. I also develop Daedalus' character, giving him a little more background and having him bond with Yang. So anonymous person, I broke down Daedalus' plot armor, Happy Thanksgiving.****

Jaune was exhausted. He had spent the last three days training with Daedalus, and he ached to his bones. He dragged himself down the hall toward the team JNPR dorm, looking forward to blissful sleep. He gave a weak goodnight to his team and collapsed onto his bed, not awake long enough to care that he was going to soak his sheets with sweat.

_I'm going to kill myself,_ Daedalus decided as he listened to Jaune ramble on about his flirting woes, his voice rising above the drone of the bullhead's engines.

"Like, I like Weiss, but I'm just unsure of whether she's playing hard to get, or-" he was cut off by Daedalus' hand slapping across his mouth.

"We're here. Now shut up and try not to get yourself killed," Daedalus snapped, walking out of the aircraft. Jaune took a moment to recover from Daedalus' sudden outburst before running after him.

They exited the bullhead to a sight that made Jaune whistle in awe. The duo stood in a forest of gigantic trees, several hundred feet high, decorated with a myriad of fall colors.

Daedalus didn't stop to admire the scenery. He jogged forward, calling back to Jaune, "The White Fang should be around a mile this way."

They jogged in silence, and after about fifteen minutes, they reached the clearing where the White Fang should have been.

"There's nothing here," Daedalus said, confused.

"Of course there isn't," a male voice called out. Daedalus' face turned white as a sheet as he recognized a voice he thought he would never hear again.

A man stepped out from behind a tree. He looked to be in his late twenties, with short black hair and deep red eyes. He wore a black suit with a white undershirt, and a blue bowtie to add color. All in all, he looked more like he was going to a formal party than the middle of a forest.

"Azrael," Daedalus whispered.

"That's my name, don't wear it out. Now, I've been hearing things circulating, people saying Alexander left the Black Hand. Now that in itself didn't get my attention. What did was that you were now attending Beacon Academy." He tut-tutted, pulling a large glaive off a strap on his back, twirling it in his fingers. "What happened to not ever leaving a friend behind, _Daedalus_?" He put mocking tones into his voice as he spoke the pseudonym

"Your students stopped being my friends the day they released Grimm into Vale," Daedalus said darkly, transforming Cube into his dual axes.

"Well, someone has a sense of moral superiority," Azrael chuckled. "Alright, Alex. You've had your fun. You've disturbed Cinder's plans long enough. This is where it ends," Azrael's expression grew dark and he launched himself forward.

Daedalus lifted an axe to block the glaive and looked for a counter to his stomach, but Azrael was too quick. He deflected it with ease and countered by slamming the shaft of the glaive into Daedalus' stomach.

Daedalus doubled over and only barely managed to dodge Azrael's next strike by rolling away. _Do I use Jaune's semblance?_ The thought bounced around his mind as he blocked strikes from Azrael. He knew he would lose as they continued, as Azrael was superior in combat to him, but was it worth Jaune's semblance?

_Doesn't look like I have much of a choice,_ he thought as Azrael battered him, wearing down his defenses.

After another thirty seconds of fighting, Daedalus gave in and leapt back to give himself some distance. He closed his eyes, and suddenly shadow swirled around him like wisps of smoke, almost completely blocking Jaune's view of him.

Jaune let out an involuntary gasp as the darkness cleared, revealing that Daedalus was no longer there. What stood in his place instead, was an Ursa. It roared at Azrael, who merely giggled.

"Still got some tricks up your sleeve, eh Alex?" he chucked.

Daedalus swung one of his claws at Azrael, who easily rolled under the attack, slashing Daedalus several times in the process. Daedalus roared in pain and attempted to bite Azrael, who effortlessly brought his glaive down and sliced the Ursa's head off.

The Ursa crumbled to dust, leaving Daedalus in its place, looking quite pale. As Azrael swung his glaive for the killing blow, Daedalus gathered what little strength hadn't been depleted by his transformation and blocked the attack, kicking Azrael in the chest to knock him down, then running toward Jaune.

"I can't beat him," Daedalus managed between gasps. "He's too good. We need to move."

"But you're too weak to outrun him!" Jaune exclaimed, terrified at this point.

"I won't have to," Daedalus said, putting his hand on Jaune's shoulder and closing his eyes.

Wisps of shadow danced around Jaune, and he suddenly felt a very strange sensation. He felt his muscles expand, and his vision raised as he grew taller. In moments he found himself as a beowulf.

Daedalus slung himself onto Jaune's back and told him, "The dropship hasn't left the area. I called it back when I saw Azrael. It's back where we were dropped off."

Jaune immediately bolted off back the way they had come, Daedalus barely hanging onto his fur.

As Daedalus had said, the bullhead was waiting for them. Jaune galloped inside, claws clicking on the metal. Daedalus turned him back into a human, and the two collapsed in a heap.

The pilot took off and they flew to the relative safety of 3000 feet.

"Who was that?" Jaune asked, and Daedalus could hear the fear in his voice. He didn't blame him.

"That was Azrael. The most dangerous man I've ever met. Mentor of Cinder, and instigator of the killing of Ruby's mother. And quite possibly the only person in Remnant that I fear," Daedalus growled. "Born with no semblance, he set out to create his own. Not uncommon. But he succeeded. I can't access it, I don't even know what it is, but it's definitely there. I can feel it."

"How do we beat him?"

Daedalus gave a defeated sigh. "I don't know."

A heavy silence hung in the bullhead for a while, followed by Jaune asking, "So that whole Grimm thing….that was….my semblance?"

"Correct. You're a Grimmborn, Jaune."

"A….a what?"

Daedalus looked at him like he had two heads. "You've seriously never heard of a Grimmborn semblance?"

"Hey, I had never heard of Pyrrha Nikos when I came to Beacon."

"Well, that makes two of us," Daedalus muttered. "A Grimmborn semblance is what you think it would be. You can change your form into that of Grimm, because, at some point in your ancestry, one of your however-many-great grandparents got some Grimm blood inside them somehow, and it's been passed down."

"But my brothers don't have it."

"There's no pattern that humans have discovered as to who it manifests in. So just be glad you have it. It's a powerful and rare semblance. With the proper training, you can surpass even Pyrrha in combat."

Jaune snorted. "Surpass Pyrrha? Right."

"Confidence is the first step," Daedalus glanced over at Jaune, and Jaune could see for the first time the fear in his eyes.

The rest of the ride was quiet.

_He needs to oil this thing,_ Yang thought as she creaked open Daedalus' door. _I can't sneak up on him anymore._

Daedalus took off his reading glasses and set them on the table beside him, along with the book he had been reading. "Come. Sit."

Yang lifted an eyebrow but complied, settling into the chair across from the boy.

"Cookie?" Daedalus asked, offering her a plate with several chocolate chip cookies on it.

"Don't mind if I do," Yang said, grabbing all of the cookies and stuffing them into her mouth. "Gheeze ferr breealy soot," she managed as she swallowed them. She cleared her throat and restated, "These are really good."

Daedalus just sighed. "You know 'cookie' is the singular term, right?"

Yang rolled her eyes. "Whatever. So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Today Jaune and I went on a mission to stop a White Fang force to the west. Turns out there was no such force. It was a death trap orchestrated by a man named Azrael. He was my mentor's mentor's mentor, and if I had stuck around any longer than I did, I would be dead."

Yang's eyebrow arched higher. "There's someone in Remnant you're afraid of?"

"I know, astonishing. On the trip back, I was thinking. But since my brain is going to rationalize and bias things, I thought I'd get an outside opinion on it." Daedalus paused.

"Well?" Yang was growing impatient.

"Am I a good man?"

Yang sat silent for a while. "I….I don't know."

"Very helpful."

"Wasn't finished. I….I think you try to be, and that's what matters. Because for you, it's very easy to give in and be the bad guy, which you are very, very good at. But you don't."

"It's just….can you keep a secret?" Daedalus had dropped his voice so it was just above a whisper.

"Eeeh….."

Daedalus shot Yang a dark look. "Okay, okay, yes."

"I'm just warning you, because Weiss, Blake, your sister, they look up to me in a way. And if you tell them this, it….probably won't end well."

Yang just nodded silently, all joking gone.

Daedalus let out a long breath. "Can't believe I'm actually going to do this," he whispered under his breath. "When I was young, I said I ran away from home. That's not technically true. I ran away from what had been my home. You've heard of Mountain Glenn, correct?"

"Yeah. I almost died there last semester at Neo's hands."

"News reporters claimed there to be no survivors. That everyone had died after those idiots blew an opening into a subterranean-Grimm infested cave. Those reports were wrong. There were, in fact, three. My sisters and I."

"Who are your sisters?" Yang interjected.

_Well, time to bite the bullet,_ Daedalus thought to himself. "Well, one of them is Nora."

He paused a moment to let it sink in. Then he let the other shoe drop.

"And the other is Neo."

Yang sat in shock. "W-who?"

"Nora Valkyrie and Neapolitan Valkyrie. Making me Daedalus Valkyrie. The three survivors of Mountain Glenn."

"Your older sister….tried to kill me. Twice."

"And yet, here you are. Quite a feat, I must say."

"And….you didn't say anything? About your sisters, about the burden you carry every day? And why is Nora so happy if she witnessed what you did?" Yang rattled off questions, deciding to ignore the face that Daedalus' sister worked for the enemy. _What would he have said, anyway?_ she thought to herself. _Hey, by the way, my sister is a psychotic girl hellbent on destroying Vale. Just a heads up._

"Nora purged her mind of the memory long ago. She remembers only the happy fragments of her youth," he smiled sadly. "Wish I had that power."

"So that's why you've attempted to destroy your emotions?"

"Watching thousands of people being slaughtered will do that to you," Daedalus rested his head in his hands. _Why did I think this was a good idea?_ he chastised himself angrily. The logical portion of his brain said, _Because studies show that venting your feelings helps you deal with them?_

To which the impulsive portion of his brain responded with a hearty _Shut up._

Yang patted him on the shoulder. "I-I'm sorry. I had no idea."

"Then I succeeded up until tonight," Daedalus said, locking eyes with Yang, a pained expression on his face.

Without warning, Yang embraced Daedalus in a hug. "The fact you've carried this with you your whole life is not a testament to your weakness, Daedalus, but a testament to your strength."

She released him and walked to the door. "Besides, studies show that just letting out emotions is much more healthy than internalizing them." With that, she shut the door, leaving Daedalus alone.

He flopped onto his bed, his brain going back to arguing with itself.

_I told you so._

_I thought I said to shut up!_

****Yeah, yeah, I know the fight was a little weak. But I had a limited timeframe and I rewrote it twice and that's the best I could come up with. It's clunky, but it gets the job done of introducing a new character and Jaune's semblance. Next time we flash back to Blake and Weiss and resolve that crisis with a rescue mission cosplaying as a team-building exercise.****


	15. Side-Switching and Shapeshifters

**Wow, this took way too long. *Profusely apologizes*. I actually had this chapter fully written 4 days ago, but scrapped it because I kind of wrote myself into a corner. So I've taken a different approach to the whole 'Blake parent abduction' thing, with less fighting but more plot development. Again, sorry about the lateness of this.**

Cinder paced back and forth, still infuriated at Daedalus' attack even several days later. She would randomly burst into flame as her rage boiled over. "He's just so….persistent!" she growled.

Neo sighed. She was the only one who dared go within fifteen feet of Cinder, and she had been trying to calm her down to no avail. "He's not invincible, Cinder. Just….very skilled."

"Really reassuring, Neo," Cinder snapped.

Suddenly, the door opened, and Cinder's eyes widened in shock when she saw who it was.

Mercury and Emerald stood in the doorway, Mercury grinning like an idiot. "Miss us?"

"How did you escape Onyx Prison?" Neo asked.

"Well, we did get some help," Emerald said, turning to the door.

On cue, Azrael walked in. "Hello, Cinder. Long time no see."

Cinder's eyes widened further. "A-Azrael? What are you doing here?"

"Long story. And one that I am far too lazy to explain," Azrael said, plopping himself into a chair in the small room. "So, Cinder, now that you have your team, what's your plan?"

"Well, we are missing Roman and Adam, because they're doing that other thing," Neo pointed out.

"Well, three fourths of your team. Wait, no that's five sevenths. Can you reduce five sevenths?"

"Probably. Hey Mercury, you're the math whiz, can you-" Emerald was cut off by Cinder's hand over her mouth.

"Shut up. Both of you. And no, you can't reduce five sevenths. Anyway, first order of business is to remove Daedalus from the picture. And here's how we're going to do it…." the group listened intently as Cinder laid out her plan.

Weiss attempted to sneak around behind Blake to see what she was reading. Of course, this didn't work, as Blake's ears were too sensitive to miss all but the smallest noises. She hastily stuffed the letter under her pillow and turned to Weiss. "What do you want?"

Giving up on stealth, Weiss walked over to Blake and sat beside her. "I want to know what's wrong."

"It's none of your business."

"I beg to differ!" Weiss snapped. "You've been attempting to internalize _something_, and you've been failing. And taking it out on me." Weiss took a deep breath.

"Sorry about that. But the point still stands. As your teammate, whatever this is is toxic to the team's overall chemistry. As your friend," Weiss paused and looked at Blake with a pained expression, "I don't want to be left in the dark anymore. I know this is how you've dealt with things your entire life. But now that you're a part of a team, you can't do that anymore."

Blake was suddenly very interested in her socks. "You're right," she breathed.

"What?"

"You're right," Blake repeated a little louder, "I've been treating you unfairly. And I apologize. It's just….this is something that I honestly have no idea what to do about."

After a moment of hesitation, she reached under her pillow and pulled out the letter. "This appeared on my bed a week ago," she said, handing it to Weiss.

Weiss scanned the faded brown sheet and the two attached pictures. "Are those…." she trailed off, her eyes wide.

"My parents," Blake confirmed with a sigh. "I don't know who it is, or why now."

Weiss sprinted out of the room, leaving Blake alone. "That's what I thought would happen," Blake muttered, collapsing onto her bed. A tear rolled down her left cheek and landed on the paper, blotting the ink.

Suddenly a rush of wind hit Blake in the face as a red flash moved through the door and stopped directly in front of her.

"Why didn't you tell us about this you dolt?" Ruby asked, lightly punching Blake on the arm. "Weiss told us about your little problem. We're here to help."

As Ruby finished her sentence, Yang and Weiss ran into the room, breathing heavily.

"Rubes, coming from someone without super speed, that was a long sprint."

"We have a slightly bigger issue here, Yang," Ruby said dismissively. "So here's what we're going to do…."

Blake walked toward the pagoda with a sense of dread. She walked up the hill toward the structure, thinking back to the last time she was there. _I was so young,_ she smiled, remniciating.

She reached the entrance to the building, but even with so much on the line, she couldn't help but stop and admire the view for a moment. The pagoda overlooked a massive valley with a raging river cutting through the earth, as it had for thousands of year previously. Oak trees created a canopy throughout the valley, a myriad of colors in the rustling leaves. Blake could see small packs of Grimm darting between gaps in the foliage, mostly beowulfs, but she did spot an Ursa before she turned back to the task at hand.

She stepped through the doorway into the three-layered structure, looking for any signs of her parents. Instead she found a girl lying on her back in the center of the floor, twirling her umbrella lethargically.

Blake unsheathed Gambol Shroud and shot forward, pressing the blade into Neo's neck. The older girl merely sighed.

"I _told_ you this would happen," she called out to seemingly empty air. Adam Taurus materialized out of nowhere, blade pointed at Blake.

"Put it down, Blake. We just want to talk," he spoke slowly and deliberately. Blake dropped her weapon and slowly raised her hands into the air. Adam kicked the weapon out of reach, and plopped down next to Neo, who had sat up.

"I hope we can get this in before your friends attack us," Neo sighed.

"We'll be fine," Adam replied, removing his mask to reveal grey, brooding eyes. "Now Blake, we're going to have to do this quickly, as we don't have much time. Your parents aren't really in danger, that's a story we fabricated for this purpose. They're actually on an all expenses paid trip to the Shard Islands, and they 'just happened' to forget their scrolls."

"It was a really simple pickpocket. Your parents are really not very observant," Neo muttered under her breath.

Adam shot her a glance. "_Anyway,_ the reason for all this is because Neo discovered the truth behind Cinder's plans."

"She doesn't tell us anything except what we need to know right that second," Neo interjected, seeing Blake's look of confusion. "And now we know why."

"She's planning to raze Remnant to the ground. Every city, every stronghold. Gone. And your very small social group are the only ones who can stop it."

"What do you care? You clearly don't care about human life. Why does this bother you?" Blake asked.

"Because she's planning on throwing all of us under the bus," Neo replied darkly.

"Okay…." Blake trailed off. "So what do we do?"

"We're not entirely sure ourselves. We only know a little more than what you do, but right now we have the upper hand, as Cinder doesn't know that we've switched sides," Adam said.

"We only have assumptions at this point, but we're guessing that she's going to go after Daedalus. So we need you to protect him. Shadow him, you're good at that. I know he has a certain….swagger to him, but he can't beat Azrael. If he has to fight him, he will lose," Neo finished quickly.

"Azrael?" Blake questioned.

"Right, you don't know about him," Neo said. "Incredibly powerful warrior. Trained Cinder, has a synthetic semblance. No one knows what it is, as he hasn't ever used it in battle. You could describe him as the Moriarty to Daedalus' Holmes." She paused. "Don't tell him I said that. My brother doesn't need any larger an ego than he already has."

Blake almost choked. "Y-you're Daedalus' brother?"

Neo raised an eyebrow. "He hasn't informed you of this?"

Without warning, Yang smashed through the wall of the pagoda, showering the three occupants with wood fragments.

"And that's our cue. Let's go, Adam," Neo said, standing up. She activated her semblance, and they both disappeared, leaving team RWBY alone.

"Are you okay, Blake?" Yang asked, dusting herself off. "Are you parents okay?"

"Yeah, they're fine," Blake replied, deep in thought.

"What happened?" Weiss asked, sauntering over to them.

"I'll tell you when we get back to Beacon," Blake muttered. "Let's just get out of here. This place gives me the creeps. And pangs of nostalgia."

"It's a start," Daedalus offered, trying to hold back laughter. He was standing in the arena, staring at a beowulf that was about a foot and a half tall. The tiny creature looked more adorable than anything. With a flourish of smoke, the small being disappeared and was replaced with a very downtrodden looking Jaune Arc.

"I just don't know how you managed to get yourself so big on the first try!" he lamented.

"Mimic Semblance. Remember?" Daedalus said, patting Jaune on the back. "Go get some rest. You're most likely going to need it for whatever's coming."

Jaune nodded and jogged out of the large dome.

Daedalus sighed. "Nora, come down here. You look ridiculous trying to hide up there."

He heard an exasperated sigh as Nora dropped down from the rafters with a thud, landing in the arena. "Why did you just disappear?" she accused, putting on her best pouty face. "You just tell me I'm your sister one night and then poof," she made a very overzealous gesture to provide a visual for her sound effect, "You go off and train Jaune and don't talk to me."

"Well, here I am, talking to you."

"Yeah, but I had to sit in the rafters for several minutes and I'm far too lazy to do that on a regular basis," Nora shot back. "I just want you to treat me like a normal older brother," her voice taking on a sad tone.

"Sorry, a little busy trying to save this entire region," Daedalus replied, his voice icy.

"And how's that working out?" Nora snapped.

She took a deep breath and then redirected the conversation, her voice softer. "Alex, are you happy?"

"That was a sudden topic change. And I thought I told you to stop calling me that," Daedalus said, climbing up the walls of the arena to reach the spectator area.

Nora followed suite and sat in a seat adjacent to him. "Clearly I'm not going to get through to you on the former issue. At least, not tonight."

Daedalus was silent for a while. Finally, he replied, "It's not in my job description to be happy."

"But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be," Nora tilted her head, concern in her eyes.

"I'm not asked to be happy. I'm asked to be brilliant on humanity's behalf. Because what I've gotten myself into with Cinder," he paused, staring off into the distance, "I'm starting to get the feeling it just might affect the entire human race, what she's planning," he whispered.

"Her underground base thing did seem pretty extensive," Nora remarked.

"Not what I was talking about. Today Jaune and I went on a mission. And we saw someone who I never thought I'd see again."

Nora frowned. She sensed fear in his voice, and that was unusual for Daedalus. Normally, he was all swagger. "Who could upset the great Daedalus Valkyrie this much?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

Daedalus sighed. "His name is Azrael…."

Daedalus lay awake in his bed. He glanced at his clock. _2:45,_ _I should really get out of the habit of staying up so late,_ he thought. But he knew it was futile to try and get rest. His mind was far too active to allow him to get any more than four hours of sleep a night. Suddenly his scroll began to vibrate, the screen lighting up the pitch-black room. He frowned, curious as to who would call him at this time of night.

"Hello?" he asked quietly.

"Trust no one," an unfamiliar female voice whispered over the line.

"Who is this?" Daedalus asked, his brow furrowing.

"Talos Vector is at Beacon. He's replaced one of your friends." With that, the line went dead.

Daedalus put his scroll down, mind racing. Talos Vector was the only known Shifter of the New Era, and if he was at Beacon….

Daedalus got no sleep that night. He tried to recall if any of team RWBY or JNPR had been acting strangely, but couldn't come up with anything. _Talos is too good at fitting in, _he thought to himself.

One of the most deadly assassins in the entire Black Hand, Talos Vector was a shapeshifter whose semblance not only allowed him to become anyone, it also gave him knowledge of how that person spoke, interacted with others, everything about them, so he could slide seamlessly into their life after they had been either taken out of the equation or abducted. And he was at Beacon, masquerading as one of Daedalus' friends.

_This one's going to be a doozy,_ he thought as he finally drifted off to sleep, chirping birds filling his ears.

**So a bit of a question for you guys, would you like smaller chapters every few days like I have been doing (well, right up until this one), or would you guys prefer weekly chapters with a 5 figure word count?**


	16. Outsmarted and Outgunned

**A setup chapter for the next one, which will reveal quite a bit of Cinder's endgame. Sorry about the inconsistency in my posting, but my teachers have been keeping me busy with projects before the year wraps up. So here's the plan for uploading until the end of the year: I'll have that next chapter out some time this weekend, and then the following week, I'm going to release my new story that I've had bouncing around in my head for some time now, but never gotten around to doing. That will be a few shades darker than this work, but will still retain a T rating. I also have a Christmas Eve chapter for this story planned which will perhaps go down the romantic route, who knows, but that will be it for me until a few days after the New Year. Another thing worth noting is that school basketball starts up in January and runs through the end of February, which is two hours after school every day. Now I did use a basketball tournament as an excuse for a late work in the past, and that was true, as that was travelling basketball. So I am going to be doing both which will mean a reduced upload schedule, unfortunately. Sorry for the lack of upload and the long introductory post, happy reading!**

Cardin shot Daedalus an annoyed look as Daedalus lazily clicked his pen, staring off into the distance. It was impossible for him to pay any attention to Professor Oobleck's lecture, as his mind was too preoccupied with thoughts of Talos Vector. He had only worked with the boy once. Or man, Daedalus wasn't sure. No one knew what Talos' true form was, as he always used someone else's.

His thoughts were interrupted by the spontaneous appearance of Oobleck directly in front of him. "Well, Daedalus? Can you name the only known extinct Grimm species?"

Daedalus snapped out of his trance-like state and answered, "The Tora."

"Excellent! Just excellent! Now, can you tell me why it went extinct?"

"It was picked off by other Grimm. Being the smallest Grimm species ever discovered, it couldn't compete for resources and habitat, and was driven to extinction."

Daedalus zoned out once again as Oobleck praised him and zipped off to continue his lecture.

_Does that man's mouth ever stop moving?_ Daedalus thought to himself as the bell rung. He quickly picked up his stuff and hurried out of the room, eager to get back to his dorm. A flash of blonde hair caught his eye, and he glanced over to see Yang walking beside him. "Hey, Yang," he muttered, not in the mood for a conversation.

Unfortunately for him, Yang was. "Daedalus, you've been acting strangely the past few days."

Daedalus raised an eyebrow. "Stranger than usual," Yang clarified with an eye roll.

"Yeah, well, I've been….busy," Daedalus replied dismissively, attempting to outpace her to no avail.

"The only word I can find to describe your actions is paranoia," Yang said with a worried look.

Daedalus flashed her a smile as he stopped at his dorm room. "Yang, don't worry about it. I'm just a little busy, and then I can relax a bit. I'm not paranoid," he added as he closed the door. He collapsed against it, resting his head on the old oak wood as he looking at his almost comical board, with strings and pictures tacked up all over it, hastily scrawled notes dotting the surface of the board all with the big label "Talos" over the top of it. "Not paranoid at all," he muttered.

He strode over to the board, and shifted several names around on a section of the board labeled "Suspect List" based on his conversation with Yang. He gave a small smile, believing he had found Talos. He would confront him (or her, if he was referring at the body he had taken) tonight.

Blake slunk behind one of the numerous spires on the roof of the main hall at Beacon, overlooking the dorm roof. She had been keeping a watchful eye on Daedalus, and she knew that he had a habit of coming out onto the roof late at night and pacing or practicing fighting techniques. But he wasn't showing up tonight, and that worried Blake, as it was something he had done both nights she had been observing him. She leapt down onto the roof of the dorm building, with the intent to take a peek inside Daedalus' window, to see if he was alright. But she was stopped by cold metal pressing against her temple and the cock of a pistol.

"End of the line, Talos," Daedalus said quietly, a disturbing cold edge to the whisper.

"Who's Talos?" Blake's voice wavered. She knew Daedalus wouldn't hesitate to shoot her, that's just who he was.

"Oh don't play stupid with me, what do you think this is, amateur hour? Do you think I haven't noticed you spying on me?" Daedalus sneered, pressing the gun more forcefully against her head. "The only reason you're still alive is that I need information."

"Daedalus," Blake pleaded, "You have to believe me. I'm not Talos, whoever that is. I've been ordered to observe you. By Neo."

Daedalus paused for a moment. He didn't move the pistol, but Blake sighed with relief internally. "But if it's not you then who...ah. Of course. It's obvio-"

Blake wasn't able to hear the last part of that statement due to a shield slamming into the side of her head with a painful-sounding clunk. Daedalus whirled around, and immediately rolled out of the way as a spear whistled past his ear.

"Pyrrha," Daedalus whispered.

"I prefer Talos," the Shifter replied, and Pyrrha's form melted away in a way that reminded Daedalus of the Terminator in those old movies he watched as a child. The Shifter took a new form, and Daedalus found himself looking at a mirror image of himself.

He feigned shock. "Is that really what my hair looks like?"  
>Talos didn't respond, and instead took out a perfect replica of Cube, which quickly transformed into dual rope darts. The two fighters eyed each other while simultaneously scanning the semblances that were in range of theirs. Daedalus leapt upward, firing a bolt of electricity toward Talos, which he easily dodged, and retorted with a glyph under his opponent's feet, which promptly exploded, sending Daedalus spiraling to the ground.<p>

Daedalus recovered quickly, slamming his fist into the ground, send a shockwave toward Talos, who flipped over it and whipped a dart toward Daedalus' neck. Daedalus managed to dodge it, but not the explosive energy ball that Talos sent immediately afterward hit him squarely in the chest, blasting him backward.

Daedalus barely regained enough strength to use Ruby's semblance and get out of the way of a fiery explosion that rocked the building underneath them. "So Cinder's here, then," Daedalus realized as flames licked dangerously close to Blake's unconscious form.

Daedalus changed his strategy, turning Cube into two relatively large throwing knives, and hurtling them at Talos. This forced Talos to momentarily stop his barrage to roll out of the way of the knives, which impaled themselves into the flat roof. Daedalus used Pyrrha semblance to gravitate the weapons back to him as he sprinted toward Talos, the knives transforming into his darkness-infused katana that had become his go-to weapon. He swung the katana with incredible speed, the blade leaving faint black trails as he swiped at Talos, but it was to no avail. Talos bobbed and weaved between the attempted blows with almost a swagger, and wrapped a rope dart around the katana's handle. He pulled, and the blade was ripped from Daedalus' grasp, skitting out of reach.

"Unfortunately for me, we need you alive," Talos told Daedalus, jabbing him with his Cube, which was now a rapier. With his free hand, he reached to his waist and grabbed a small, metal semi-sphere out of a zippered pouch.

"A Fulgur," was all Daedalus could get out before Talos stuck the adhesive side of the semi-sphere to Daedalus' neck, and one thousand volts of electricity arced through Daedalus' body. The last thing he saw was a bullhead rising above the skyline in front of him, the deafening roar of the engines slowly fading away.

Cinder smiled at the handiwork of her newest asset as the bullhead hovered about a foot from the roof of the dorms. She motioned for Talos to bring Daedalus onto the ship, which was quite easy for Talos due to his incredible physical strength.

"What should we do about her?" Talos asked as he boarded, pointing to the unconscious Blake lying at the far end of the roof.

"Neo, kill her," Cinder said dismissively, turning toward the cockpit where Roman waited. Neo hopped down onto the roof and strode over to Blake. As she did so, she used her semblance to manipulate what her "allies" saw, moving Blake's motionless body over a few feet in their eyes.

In reality, her stiletto blade hit nothing but concrete, but to the few observers of the event, she had just stabbed Blake through her chest. She sheathed her blade and teleported back onto the ship, but not before leaving a small, almost unnoticeable slip of paper on the ground next to Blake. The aircraft then turned and flew away from Beacon with their precious cargo.


	17. The Great Atlas Mine

**Sorry about this one being late, I got hit with a particularly nasty stomach bug this weekend, and I kind of had to rush to get this chapter out. I'm relatively happy with it, so...yeah. I'm going to push my new story back until after Christmas, and I will still get that Christmas chapter out, so there's that. So in this chapter, we get closure on the abduction of Daedalus, and a character meets her untimely end.**

The first thought that hit Blake as she regained consciousness was how incredibly cold the roof of the dorm was. _Imagine that,_ she thought to herself, _Cold roofs in December._ Suddenly, everything that had happened before she had been hit by the shield came flooding back. She gasped and looked around in a panic for both Daedalus and her unseen attacker, finding neither.

She turned toward Daedalus' room, intending to check on him, but a small slip of paper caught her eye. She knelt down and grabbed the scrap, unfurling it to reveal a series of numbers. After seeing that Daedalus' room was indeed unoccupied, she bolted off toward Professor Ozpin's office.

Ozpin was tired. He had just finished an hour long discussion with James Ironwood about the attack on his school by Cinder a few weeks previous, and was looking forward to sleep. He reached for the door handle, but Blake beat him to it on the other side. "Professor, I need to talk to you," she blurted.

"Well, it will have to wait until tomorrow, miss Belladonna, as I am very, very tired," the Professor replied, rubbing his eyelids.

"Daedalus has been abducted!" Blake shouted.

Ozpin froze. "What?"

"I was shadowing him on the orders of….a friend. He mistakenly believed I was someone named 'Talos'. Then I blacked out."

Ozpin sat back down at his computer and pulled up the Remnant Criminal Database, as the name rang a bell. Blake peered over his shoulder. "Talos Vector," Ozpin declared, placing his glasses down onto the desk.

"No picture?" Blake questioned.

"He's a Shifter. Doesn't have a picture," Ozpin said curtly, reaching for his scroll. He dialed Oobleck's personal number, with no doubt he would be up. Ozpin was fairly certain the man didn't ever sleep. "Hello Bartholomew? I need you to send me the security feeds from tonight so far. Thanks." He tossed his scroll to the side.

A few minutes later, Ozpin and Blake were flicking through the various security feeds with a view of the dorm roof, looking for what happened to Daedalus. Blake's expression turned from shock to dismay as the footage rolled.

"So what happened to Pyrrha?" Blake asked.

"Either abducted as well, or….deceased," Ozpin replied ominously.

"What can we do?"

Ozpin threw his hands up helplessly. "Nothing. We don't know where they went."

Blake pulled out the small slip of paper, and stared at the numbers again. "Actually, I might have a solution for that," she said, copying the numbers into the GPS function on her scroll. She grinned triumphantly, displaying the location to Ozpin. "I found this when I woke up. They're coordinates."

"Can we trust them?" Ozpin asked, clasping his hands together and touching his index fingers to the bridge of his nose.

Blake shrugged. "We don't have a choice. Daedalus is our most powerful ally, and I find it more worrying that they took him alive rather than just killing him."

"Indeed," Ozpin murmured, staring into the distance. He was silent for a full minute before continuing, "I'll call Ironwood. He has the firepower to take whatever hell they have in store in those tunnels."

"I want my team to go with," Blake said forcefully.

"Absolutely not. Too dangerous," Ozpin immediately responded.

"But professor!"

"No buts, miss Belladonna. It's simply not an option. I have two students who have a very high probability of death. I don't need six."

Blake sighed dejectedly and walked out of the room, feet dragging across the floor. Ozpin reached for his scroll once again. "Hello, James. A situation has come to my attention of the utmost urgency and I need your assistance. Here's what's happening…"

Daedalus awoke in a cold, dank cell. Condensation dripped from the ceiling, which he found quite annoying as there wasn't enough room to pace without getting wet. Every so often, a White Fang soldier would walk by, and Daedalus would reach out to see if their semblance had any use to him. It never did. He attempted to use Pyrrha's semblance to bend the bars of the cell, but he found that the bars were not made of metal. He ran his hands along the bars. "Carbon fiber," he whispered to himself.

"Well, it couldn't have been metal," Cinder called out as she strode into view.

Daedalus leaned against the bars. "Why am I still alive?" his voice dropped to just above a whisper.

"Not normally a question people ask in your situation," Cinder remarked.

"I've thwarted you several times. Normally, people who do that are dead in hours, so…" his eyes lit up in realization. "You need me for something."

"Unfortunately, yes," Cinder said with a sigh.

"Well, forget it, I'm not doing it. I'd rather die than let whatever sick plan you have come to fruition."

"I thought you might say that," Cinder said with a mock frown, "So I brought you this. A little gift from me to you." She slid a small box through the bars at the floor and walked away, her heels clicking against the rocky floor. "Let me know if that changes your mind."

Daedalus reached down and snatched the box, tearing it open. Inside was a scroll, playing a security feed. Daedalus quickly discovered that all other features of the scroll had been disabled.

On the feed, Pyrrha Nikos sat unconscious in a chair in the center of a small room. Her face was bloodied and bruised, and her right arm was bent at an unnatural angle. Even though she was out cold, her face still seemed contorted into a painful expression. "Good god, Cinder," Daedalus whispered. "What have you done?"

James Ironwood had a dilemma. He knew that his Atlesian Knights would most likely free the two prisoners in the Great Atlas Mine, but he wanted more than that. He wanted to apprehend the perpetrators, and he knew his Knights were not up to that task. But he had an asset that was. He just was worried about her safety, as the situation he would be sending her into could very well get her killed.

"Sir?" his secretary William asked, waiting for a decision.

Ironwood rubbed his temples. "Get her on that ship."

Daedalus finally gave in after he saw three White Fang soldiers walk into Pyrrha's room for round six. He called out to Cinder, submitting to her demands. She grinned, and activated the Fulger still attached to his neck, and darkness reclaimed Daedalus' vision.

He awoke in chains. Of course, they weren't actual chains, they were made of carbon fiber. His eyes widened in shock as he realized what he was looking at. "No," he murmured, staring at the massive weapon. "How did you even get your hands on this?"

"We have some friends that James Ironwood keeps in his graces," Cinder replied dismissively. "What we need is the arming code."

"Figures," Daedalus replied.

"We are aware you worked on this project, so don't play dumb with us."

"I can't. There is no way I'm going to arm a Dust Bomb. That thing could kill the entire city of Vale!" Daedalus' voice steadily rose until he was yelling in anger.

"Well, we could always…" Cinder trailed off. "Emerald, dear, could you show Daedalus here what we will do to miss Nikos if he does not comply?"

Emerald strolled over and held up the scroll Cinder had given Daedalus just an hour previous. A White Fang soldier now held a pistol to Pyrrha's head. Tears streamed down her face, but she was silent.

"Ten," Cinder said quietly as Daedalus looked on in horror.

"Nine," Daedalus tried to find some way to escape, but found none. Even if he did, Pyrrha would die.

"Eight."

"Stop," Daedalus said. He reached up to the small keyboard that extruded from the smooth surface of the bomb. He typed in the twenty seven digit code, and the small display changed from green to red, with the words "Armed" flashing on it. Cinder smiled. The soldier on the scroll lowered the gun.

"I knew you would make the right decision, Daedalus. Unfortunately, we no longer have a use for miss Nikos." She reached for her earpiece. "Kill her."

Daedalus watched helplessly as the White Fang raised the pistol once again, pressing it against her temple. But before he could pull the trigger, a flash of green brightened the screen, and the soldier was knocked back against the wall. Cinder's mouth literally hung open in shock. Daedalus smiled. He knew exactly who that was.

Cube had been taken from him at some point before he entered this rocky, underground facility, and normally that would mean he could not access it. But when you can use a telekinetic semblance, that minor hiccup disappears completely. Cube whizzed through the air toward Daedalus as he simultaneously leapt out of the way. He used Penny's semblance in combination with Cinder's to turn Cube into a superheated sword that slashed through his bonds like a hot knife through butter.

He used Emerald's semblance to shroud the area in shadow, and ran off. His only priority was to find Pyrrha and get out. It was unlike him, but he was too worried about her to care. _These eight idiots really are rubbing off on me,_ he thought to himself, as he used the locations of Pyrrha's semblance to find her.

He burst into the room to find Penny standing over Pyrrha, a worried look on her face. That look gave way, however, to a sort of surprised happiness when she saw Daedalus. "Sal-u-tations, Daedalus!" she offered a dopey grin.

"Hey there, Penny. Combat ready?" he asked, dropping to one knee to asses the damage to Pyrrha.

"Absolutely! Although, I don't think she is," she frowned as she looked down at Pyrrha.

"No she is not. Listen, Penny, are you alone?"

"No. There are quite a lot of Atlesian Knights marching in here right now!" Penny replied excitedly.

"Good. Listen, Penny, I need you to help me get Pyrrha out of here."

Penny nodded, and slung Pyrrha over her shoulder, and they ran out into the fray.

Daedalus had seen some pretty bad things in his time as a member of the Black Hand. Torture, death, insanity, betrayal. But he was still appalled by the absolute whirlwind of a battle that was taking place in the large cavern where he had armed the Dust Bomb. Only the bomb was no longer there.

Atlesian Knights engaged White Fang all across the cavern, in both melee and gunfights, and it was appearing pretty even. The two sides were trading blows, but both seemed to still have the same amount of soldiers.

The two sprinted through the fighters, doing their best to avoid the hail of bullets flying past them. Miraculously, they made it to the other side with only minor injuries, save a bullet that punctured Penny's shoulder, but didn't affect any of her circuitry.

They were just emerging from the tunnel that led outside when Daedalus felt a sharp pain in the back of his left leg. He whipped his head around to see Emerald Sustrai, holding her pistols aimed right at him.

"Get Pyrrha to the ship," he yelled to Penny before turning his attention to Emerald. Daedalus used Emerald's semblance against her once again, and everything in a twenty foot area became pitch black. He tried to rush forward, but the pain in his leg told him he was going to need to be a bit more strategic with how he was going to deal with this.

Emerald dispelled the blackness and rushed toward him, sickles in hand. Daedalus rolled under her attack and turned Cube into a rifle, which he fired at her. She rolled out of the way of the bullets and came at him again, but this time, Daedalus had a fully formed plan.

He used Penny's semblance to throw Emerald's weapons out of her reach. He knew she was still quite deadly in hand to hand combat, but this gave him a little time. He blocked a haymaker from the girl and jumped backward, grunting in pain as he did so. He then activated the other area of Penny's semblance and fired a massive burst of green energy at Emerald, which slammed her violently against the rocky wall of the mine. Daedalus closed the gap before she could recover and pinned her against the rock by putting his hand around her throat.

"A few days ago," he spoke quietly, but with a cold edge that scared Emerald, "My friend Yang said that she didn't know if I was a good man. But that I tried, and that was what mattered. But guess what," he leaned in so his mouth was mere inches from her ear, "she was wrong."

He threw her away from him and activated Penny's semblance once again, firing a solid green beam at Emerald, and this time, he didn't let up.

_A few days later..._

James Ironwood stood overlooking the large cavern, Daedalus standing next to him with a pair of crutches. He was pale from pushing all of his aura into Pyrrha to speed her recovery along, and thus had had no time to heal his gunshot wound.

"How many sites like this does she have?" Ironwood mused.

"A person like her will have dozens," Daedalus replied.

"Well, now we really have something to worry about," Ironwood said.

"Indeed. Somewhere out there there's a psychopath with a one hundred megaton bomb at her disposal," Daedalus said, staring at the empty space where the bomb had been. The Atlesian Knights had won the battle, and clearing out the White Fang from the tunnels, while tedious, only took a few hours after the initial fight.

"I still don't understand why you armed the bomb. That was one of the main reasons I chose you for the project, Daedalus," Ironwood sighed, turning to Daedalus.

Daedalus shrugged. "Beacon's softened my cold, cold heart."

"Clearly not enough to stop you from killing," Ironwood noted.

"I don't think we'll ever get past that point, James," Daedalus said, smiling. "Well, I'd better be off, I have lots to do."

"Like what?"

"Oh you know me, the usual. Plan-thwarting vigilante. Student. Caring friend."

"That….doesn't sound like you at all, actually."

"Don't forget liar."

"Ah, but of course," Ironwood replied, chuckling. "Happy holidays, Daedalus."

"And the same to you, James."

Cinder Fall was tired. Tired of Daedalus, tired of all of those brats at Beacon, tired of Ozpin. She stared at her large planning board. She had taken a huge step forward, but at a high cost. Emerald Sustrai was dead.

Talos came up behind her, disguised as the movie star Spruce Willis. "You know, the greatest rewards always come with the most hefty prices."

"Something I now know firsthand," Cinder replied sadly. "We have all the pieces. Let's move to final phase."

"I'll let them know," Talos said, jogging off toward the rest of her underlings.

A single tear rolled down her cheek as she thought about Emerald, but with her heat, that tear quickly evaporated. Cinder stared back at the board. She ran her finger across a picture of Daedalus, inadvertently lighting it aflame with her anger. "Soon," she muttered. "Soon."


	18. A Beacon Christmas

**Depending on what part of the world you live in, and your religion, Merry Christmas(well, Eve, but it's close enough). For the rest of you, hope you had a Happy Hanukkah, and I'm pretty sure Kwanzaa starts soon as well. So Happy Holidays! In this chapter I managed to get a ton of plot and some character development in while still retaining a Christmas theme. This was by far one of my favorite chapters to write, and I hope you guys enjoy it!**

"Almost…..there…..got it!"

Yang groaned and collapsed, causing her teammates to fall from her shoulders into a large heap on the floor of their dorm. It had taken all four of them, stacked on each other's shoulders in order for Ruby to place the star on the top of their tree. "I'm still unsure as to why we're doing this _on_ Christmas Eve," Blake muttered, rubbing the back of her head.

"Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow, that's my motto," Ruby said with her ever-present air of cheerfulness, amplified by the holiday season.

"That's probably not the greatest attitude for our team leader," Weiss remarked with a raised eyebrow.

"Eh, it's worked so far," Ruby shrugged, and bolted off to eat more sugar from the buffet in the cafeteria.

"If she eats any more sugar she's going to give herself a heart attack," Blake sighed, flopping onto her bed.

"Yeah, or us," Yang said under her breath.

Daedalus sat in his dorm, staring at his chessboard, as he had been doing for the past three and a half minutes. "Come onnnn," Nora drawled, "Make a move already!"

"Patience, sister dear. You are surprisingly good at this," Daedalus replied, brow furrowed. "Bishop takes knight, check."

"Thanks," Nora said, rolling her eyes. "King to rook two."

Even though all of the lights were off, the room was well lit by the Christmas tree in the back, put there at his friends' insistence. A light snow fell outside the window, and the entire city of Vale gave off a gentle glow. The entire scene was extremely serene, but it wasn't moving Daedalus. His mind was still focused on Cinder and her bomb. "Rook to king's rook three, check."

"Clever," Nora said quietly, and it was now her turn to stare at the board for several minutes. Daedalus took the opportunity to let his mind wander. He thought about the long weeks he had had, and the even longer weeks ahead. He thought about his older sister, who he now knew was on his side, but was deeply entrenched in enemy territory, and needed a distraction to get out. But, inevitably, his thoughts came around to Ruby. _The girl has so much untapped potential,_ he thought to himself. _There's….something else in her semblance, but even I can't access it. But I can feel it._

"Bishop to rook three." Nora's move snapped Daedalus out of his stupor, and he glanced at the board again.

"Bishop takes bishop."

"Rook to bishop four."

"Ooh, devious. I like it," Daedalus grinned.

"Just learning from the master, Daeds."

"You know, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Rook takes rook."

"Pawn takes rook."

"Bishop to bishop seven." Daedalus stood and gazed out at the picturesque setting just outside his window. A small smile found its way to his lips.

"Queen takes knight pawn."

Daedalus tut tutted and shook his head. "You moved your only defending piece out of the picture. Bishop to bishop eight. Checkmate."

Nora sighed and sunk into the chair in which she sat. "You win, Daedalus. Ah well. Your chairs are really comfy, you know that?" she said, bouncing up and down slightly.

"Yeah, yeah," Daedalus dismissed the query, as something had caught his eye outside his window. A figure leaned against a spire on the roof of the adjacent building, staring at him. He couldn't get a great view of her clothing, until he realized that it was blending in with the snow that was obstructing his vision. As he opened his window to approach, the person disappeared.

Nora frowned. "Daeds, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Daedalus replied quickly, closing the window and turning back to his sister. "I just….thought I saw something."

"Yeah, that happens to me all the time."

Daedalus rolled his eyes. "Of course it does."

Weiss was frustrated. She wanted to reveal her feelings for Ruby, but she was plagued by doubt. Unable to think of what to do, she sought solace in her old partner. She slowly opened his door, the door screeching in protest. Daedalus glanced up from his book. "Ah, hello, Weiss. What brings you to my humble abode?"

"You should really get this thing oiled," Weiss muttered as she closed the door behind her and sat down across from Daedalus, the fire he had lit dancing on her pale face.

"I have it like that on purpose, Weiss. I want to know when people are entering or leaving my dorm," Daedalus replied, snapping his book shut and placing it on the small stand next to him. "Hmm….you're upset. Distraught, even. About….what?"

Weiss sighed. "Ruby."

"Ah. Of course," Daedalus replied with a smile. "Listen, you're going to thank me for this later. Just tell her how you feel. Seriously. That's all the advice I have for you."

"But what if she doesn't feel the same way?"

"Weiss," Daedalus stood and walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder, "You have to go out on a limb eventually. That's where the fruit is."

Ruby sat on top of the dorms, stargazing. The snow had stopped and the clouds had moved away to reveal a crystal clear night sky. It was late, but, being the adolescent that she was, she couldn't sleep. _After all,_ she thought, _it is Christmas Eve._

Footsteps behind her interrupted her thoughts. She glanced back, and was surprised to see Weiss walking up behind her, two mugs in her grasp. She plopped down next to Ruby. "Hey."

"Hi Weiss," Ruby beamed at her teammate. Weiss handed her one of the mugs.

"Hot cocoa," she murmured, taking a sip as she did. Ruby gladly accepted the mug and began chugging it down before being stopped by Weiss. "I did not make this for you just to have you gulp it down in four seconds," she shot Ruby a half-hearted glare, "Savor it. Please."

Ruby obeyed, and began took much smaller sips.

Weiss took a deep breath. _Here we go, _she thought. "Ruby."

"Yeah?"

"Ever since the end of our first year….I've….sort of….." she trailed off.

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

"I've liked you," Weiss blurted, "As….more than a friend."

She closed her eyes and waited for the rejection she was certain was coming. Instead Ruby threw her arms around Weiss and hugged her.

"I was wondering when you would notice my hints you lug nut," she whispered with a giggle.

Relief and joy flooded over Weiss as she hugged Ruby back. She opened her eyes to see Daedalus leaning on a spire on the building across from her. She mouthed the words _Thank you_. He just winked and gave his signature cocky half smile, and disappeared with the help of Ruby's semblance.

Daedalus materialized in his dorm, quite pleased with himself and his ability to play Cupid. He was about to flop onto his bed and doze off when he heard the gun cock. He slowly raised his hands and turned around.

"Ah, stopped beating around the bush have we, Lie Ren?" he asked, his smile gone.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't shoot you right now," Ren said quietly, but with a terrifying undertone as he stepped out of the shadows, Stormflower pointed at Daedalus' head.

"I can do two better. Reason number one. As of right now our interests are aligned. We both want to stop a crazy, and now most likely furious, lady from blowing up Vale. You kill me here you lose an ally." Daedalus was incredibly calm. He had faced situations like this more times than he could count and knew how to handle himself. "Reason number two, and probably the most important reason. Your sister isn't dead." Daedalus smiled at the shock on his face. "That mission wasn't a hit, it was an abduction. Last I heard, and that was quite recently, your sister is still alive and well. She's been trained as an assassin by the Black Hand, but I'd consider that a bonus."

Daedalus almost leapt backward in surprise when Ren stormed forward and shoved the gun under his chin. "This is my sister we're talking about. I'm not in the mood for jokes, if you couldn't tell," he whispered.

"Okay, okay. I tell you what, here's what I'll do. I still have plenty of contacts in the Black Hand. I'll ask around. And in a few days, you and I will go abduct her back."

"Just me. Not you."

"You'll be dead in ten seconds if you don't let me come with. Your sister most likely doesn't even recognize you anymore, and won't hesitate to kill you. And no offense, but you won't stand a chance. You need me to hold her off while we try to explain, and when….sorry if, that fails, then we'll just knock her out and bring her to Beacon. And thirdly," he stood up and ushered Ren toward the door, "It's Christmas Eve. It's the season of giving. Not of shooting people in the head. That's St. Patrick's day." He laughed outright at the befuddled look Ren gave him. "Hey man, pubs can get rowdy. See you very soon," he said, and closed the door.\

Daedalus had become used to being alone for Christmas. After all, he had spent his last one in the Vacuo mountains, plotting a strike on a drug lord that had borrowed money from the wrong people. But this Christmas, Yang was being quite insistent.

"No one should spend Christmas Eve alone," she repeated for what seemed like the tenth time. "Not even you."

"But you should be spending it with your teammates. That is an invaluable bonding session waiting to happen," Daedalus rebuked. "I've always worked alone. You have not."

Yang groaned and almost slammed her head on the chessboard Daedalus had failed to put away. It gave her an idea. "Pawn to king four," she said with a slight smile.

Daedalus turned from his window, mirroring her smile. "King's knight to bishop three."

"You're going to win, you know," Yang replied with a laugh.

"Perhaps. But it's not the destination, it's the journey."

That Christmas was the most eventful one for Daedalus in years. And it was mostly due to a certain blonde who adamantly refused to let him have his way.

**Some very clever people may have noticed the chess game Nora and Daedalus played was in fact, the same game Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty played in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which is a really good movie and I implore you to watch it. Anyway, my new story, Thorns, should be out in a few days, but in the meantime, enjoy the festivities. IntoShadow out.**


	19. APOLOGY EXPLANATION THING

No, I'm not dead, or losing interest, just very busy. The lack of content in January has been due to several factors in combination,

the main one being the fact that my mother discovered the bad part of this site and barred me from my computer indefinitely, and it

took me 2 ½ weeks to make her understand that if you actively seek out bad stuff on the internet, you're going to find it. And then

my underestimate of the amount of free time school basketball would eat up in combination with travelling, when I have 4 hours of

basketball 2-4 nights a week, in combination with writer's block. Also, I've been bitten by the Destiny bug, so I've been using that

to procrastinate these massive projects that I've gotten over the last few weeks instead of writing, which is what I did previous. I'm

finally figuring it out, finishing these projects and getting into the rhythm of school ball. Finally, the other story I'm attempting to

write. I have re-written that stupid thing six or seven times, either because I didn't like the amount of content I could get out of it, or

it felt rushed. Not even going to set a date for it, but just going to pull a Rockstar and say "in the coming weeks"(that's a GTA 5

reference for you young'uns). My next chapter, and I say this with a lot of caution, _should_ be out by Monday. I do have a basketball

tournament this weekend, so that might interfere, but I hope it won't be too drastic. Anyway, apologies, sometimes real life gets in

the way(stupid real life).


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